World meat industry news

In the first half of the year, Russian producers exported 81.6 thousand tons of pork - 24.1 thousand tons, or 23% less than in the same period last year. This was announced during the annual meeting of the National Union of Pig Breeders (NSS) by the general director of the union Yuri Kovalev. The reduction in shipments abroad this year could increase the glut of the domestic market, he warned, estimating that by the end of the year, exports could decrease by 50 thousand tons - more than 1% of consumption. “In the conditions of oversaturated markets, each such percentage has a huge negative impact on the domestic price environment,” Kovalev emphasized.

Including exports to Vietnam in January-June 2022 decreased by 57% to 23.4 thousand tons. According to the results of the same period in 2021, the country was the largest buyer of Russian pork (54.5 thousand tons), follows from the presentation of the NSS . The decrease was due to the recovery of domestic production in Vietnam and relatively high prices in the Russian market. Also, the logistical problems associated with COVID-19 continued to affect, which have intensified in recent months due to the lack of containers. In addition, supplies are affected by the sharply strengthened ruble exchange rate, which makes export shipments unprofitable, Kovalev explained.

However, the head of the NSS called the development of export sales channels one of the inevitable trends in the industry. “Everything is important here: studying target markets, personnel, investing in freezing and storage capacities, and much more,” Kovalev said. At the same time, he stressed that without developing the export markets of Southeast Asia, the development of the industry is not only wrong, difficult and risky, but also strategically short-sighted. “That is why we, as an industry, have set ourselves an extremely ambitious, but quite realistic goal - to enter the top 5 global pork exporters over the next 5-10 years,” Kovalev recalled.

The main priority is still the opening of the Chinese market for Russian pork. “The further progressive development of Russian pig breeding now depends on this, given the main challenge associated with the risk of oversaturation of our domestic market, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, huge prospects for the industry, taking into account geographic, geopolitical and other factors,” Kovalev noted. According to him, Russia is in the top 5 global pork producers, and at the same time, the only one of the leaders does not have access to the Chinese market. Last year, China purchased 3.5 million tons of pig products, Russia could supply up to 250-300 thousand tons to the country: about 10% of Chinese imports in the next three years, NSS estimates.

Last December, China allowed France to supply pork even in the event of an outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) from unaffected regions. This is a historical precedent, for the first time China recognized the regionalization of the whole country for ASF, Kovalev emphasized. “I don’t want to indulge in special illusions that we will be able to quickly reach an agreement with China on regionalization on ASF, but the fact that this has now become more realistic is an indisputable fact,” said the head of the union.