World meat industry news

At the end of 2023, beef production in live weight is expected to increase by 1.7% compared to 2022 - up to 1.65 million tons. The increase follows a decline of 3.2% and is of a replenishing nature, analysts say.

According to the Russian Ministry of Agriculture, in January-August, the production of cattle for slaughter increased by 7% year on year - to 701.1 thousand tons. The ministry representative assumes that the volume of beef this year will be sufficient to meet the needs of the domestic market, and the further development of beef cattle breeding will be facilitated by expanding the geography of exports and increasing demand for beef.

The head of one of the large meat processing plants, without going into details, noted that the positive dynamics in the beef segment is associated with the accelerated slaughter of livestock in some regions of Russia.

In turn, NMA experts believe that the industry has entered a period of stagnation. Miratorg gives the same assessment of the situation: investment activity has practically stopped, because it has become unprofitable to produce beef in Russia, the holding’s management claims, the return on investment reaches 10–15 years.

NMA Executive Director Sergei Yushin emphasized that players in the beef cattle breeding market are faced with low profitability, even negative. Only premium parts of the carcass of bulls of specialized breeds, that is, no more than 10% of its weight, can be sold at high prices. Moreover, the demand for them is small. The bulk of beef on the domestic market comes from dairy cows after they are culled, the head of an industry association said, and beef cattle breeding is under pressure from the sale of cheap cattle. Development is hampered by the expectations of consumers, regulators and processors who are accustomed to unreasonably low prices for beef.