World meat industry news

Production of Russian food equipment for 8 months. 2023 compared to the same period last year increased by 34%, to 78 billion rubles. This was announced by the President of the Rosspetsmash Association, Konstantin Babkin, at the Food Engineering 2023 Forum. The event was organized by the Rosspetsmash Association with the support of the Russian Union of Mechanical Engineers.

Market of food equipment in Russia for 8 months. 2023 increased by 79%, to 164.4 billion rubles. The volume of imports increased by 131%, to 93.6 billion rubles. The main foreign players represent China, Germany, Italy, Turkey, and Spain. The share of Russian equipment in the domestic market fell from 56 to 43%.

Despite the pressure, Russian companies are building and opening new production facilities. Now domestic machine builders are faced with the task of increasing production output in such areas as baking equipment (with a capacity of up to 100 tons per day), packaging equipment, equipment for processing meat and poultry, for public catering and the production of animal feed, components.

The development of the industry is slowed down by rising prices for components and logistics, difficulties at factories in attracting working capital, dependence on imports of components and materials that are not produced in Russia (either production volumes or their quality do not suit machine builders), as well as a shortage of personnel.

Konstantin Babkin made proposals for creating a generally favorable background. Among them are ensuring access for machine builders to preferential loans at a rate of 0%-1%, establishing legislative responsibility of the Central Bank for the growth of production and jobs in the economy, reorienting the functions of the Tax Code from purely fiscal to stimulating production. Specialized mechanical engineering needs affordable prices for raw materials, energy and transportation. It is important to develop cooperation among enterprises and establish effective interaction between factories and educational institutions.

In addition, proposals were made such as increasing funding for Program 823 to 2.5 billion rubles. in 2024 and up to 3 billion in subsequent years, providing grants for the development of components, extending benefits for IT companies to specialized mechanical engineering, establishing duties on imported food equipment above WTO rates, developing and introducing preferential lending for Russian manufacturers of food equipment through Ministry of Agriculture of Russia.