World meat industry news

By early 2021, Russia had turned from one of the largest importers to one of the largest exporters of pork, and the pork consumption level reached record in 30 years.

Pork imports have been practically "zeroed". From the total import dependence, which was observed back in the mid-2000s, when pork imports were approaching 50% of the domestic demand, almost 100% self-sufficiency in pork meat was reached by the end of 2019.

However, some regions continue to buy pork meat abroad, and in 2021 there was even an upward trend.

So where does imported pork go, the volumes of which reached 2,486 tons in 6 months of 2021?

Compared to 2021, Russia has almost doubled pork imports, or by 1,240 tons. The Moscow region remains the main importer of pork from abroad. In January-June 2021, the region purchased 1,212 tons of pork, which is 136% more than last year. Of this total import volume, about 10.4% falls on Moscow, which, compared to 2020, increased its purchases of imported pork from 1.12 tons to 114.15 tons.

The second place holds the Kaliningrad region. The volume of pork imports for 6 months here reached 488.7 tons (+ 7.8%).

St. Petersburg closes the top three of the leading Russian pork importers. The northern capital purchased 376.2 tons of pork in 6 months (+ 223%). It is noteworthy that in the North-West Federal District there are no other buyers of imported pork meat.

Primorsky Territory ranks fourth in the list of Russian pork importers with a purchase volume of 330.3 tons (-32%).

Another buyer of imported pork in 2021 was the Tver region (79 tons), although a year ago the region was not among the pork importers.