World meat industry news

In the first quarter of 2023, Russia exported 46,800 tons of pork. According to the Russian Union of Pork Producers, this is 32% more than in 2022. Pork sales rose in key export destinations, further boosting production.

For example, exports to Vietnam rose by 130% to 18,800 tons and to Hong Kong by 140% to 1,600 tons. Sales to Belarus rose 18% to 16,600 tons, while Mongolia jumped 44% to 1,400 tons.

On the other hand, Russia sold only 1400 tons of pork to Kazakhstan, which is 30% less than in the previous year. This is the only key sales market where the dynamics of exports turned out to be negative.

Reducing excess supply

Yuri Kovalev, Chairman of the Russian Union of Pork Producers, commented that a strong increase in sales to foreign consumers is expected to largely alleviate the problem of oversupply in the domestic market.

He also calculated that Russian farmers produced 1.42 million tons of pork in the first quarter of 2023, up 5.6% from the previous year.

Consolidation continues

As in previous years, not all Russian farmers benefited from increased exports and production. In the first quarter of 2023, the volume of production at industrial pig farms in Russia increased by 7.1% to 1.32 million tons.

Independent farmers and household plots, on the other hand, continue to reduce production, a trend that has continued in Russia for a decade. Independent farmers produced just 6,100 tons of pork, down 12.8% from the previous year, while household plots produced 93,800 tons, down 11.1% from 2021.

Price reduction

Despite the positive dynamics of exports, Russian farmers are still seeing a decline in wholesale prices. During the first quarter of 2023, the average price of live pigs in the country fell by 7.5%, Kovalev calculated, recalling that for the whole of 2022, the average price fell by only 6%.

On the one hand, falling prices undermine the profitability of farmers, but on the other hand, as Kovalev noted, this ensures an increase in consumption and, consequently, an increase in demand in the Russian market.

China is still a distant dream

Russian farmers still hope that the Chinese market will one day be opened for export, but there is no progress in this area. Russian President Vladimir Putin recently told reporters that: “It would be easier to export drones than pork to China” because “drones do not suffer from African swine fever (ASF).”

Over the past few years, Russian pig companies have been asking Putin to help open up the Chinese market, but ASF appears to be a stumbling block in negotiations.