World meat industry news

Retail trade in Russia has every chance to overcome the crisis and reach a turnover growth of 2-2.5% in 2023, while in 2022 the decline in turnover may be 8-9%. Igor Karavaev, Chairman of the Presidium of the Association of Retail Companies (AKORT), announced this to TASS on the eve of the Trade Worker's Day.

He noted that AKORT still expects a decrease in the entire retail turnover in 2022 within single digits - at the level of 8-9%.

"Much has already been done and is being done to support businesses and consumers, so we expect that next year the market will go positive and show growth at the level of 2-2.5%," Karavaev said.

All recent measures to support the trading industry, such as expanding the ability to use soft loans, are aimed at reducing costs, which ultimately affects prices. To stimulate consumer spending, you need a wide choice of goods, the availability of credit programs for large purchases, and the preservation of jobs, he added.

Karavaev noted that the measures of targeted support for consumers who find themselves in a difficult life situation can be helped by the development of the food-sharing institution - the donation of food products with a short shelf life by retail chains to charity. This could save about one million tons of food per year and provide up to 50% of the diet for 3.5 million people.

According to AKORT, in the first half of the year, the overall reduction in the assortment in the networks - members of the association amounted to 3-4%, mainly these are imported goods of non-food categories and individual food products in the price segments "medium plus" and "premium", for example, some premium alcohol brands.

"The share of suppliers that have left the market is small: only 14% of foreign FCMG companies operating on the market (manufacturers of consumer goods - TASS note) announced a complete stop or sale of their business - about 10 companies. At the same time, it should be taken into account that a large some of the suppliers are localized in Russia, they have their own production here," Karavaev said.

There are already examples of the buyout of Finnish food production by Russian owners - the Kolomenskoye bakery bought Fazer, the Velcom company, a manufacturer of Valio cheeses. In this case, the usual products remain on the shelves. The main categories of imports in food chains are vegetables, fruits and alcohol. Deliveries of fruits and vegetables have been normalized in the first place, active work is underway on the alcohol category, he added.