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All news / Russia increased live cattle imports

  • 22 Sep 2021, 11:52

Russia has never been a major importer of livestock and poultry, but some deliveries still take place. Of course, the main share of imports is made up of pedigree animals, but now their purchases abroad  decreased significantly.

At the end of July 2021, Russia significantly increased the imports of live cattle. The total number of cows imported into the territory of the Russian Federation reached almost 6 thousand heads (5977 heads), which is 85.3% more than in the same period last year (3 226 heads in July 2020).

The main supplier of imported cattle was the European Union (89.7%). At the same time, a small amount of live cattle was also purchased from Belarus. The main buyer of live cattle abroad was the Kursk region, which purchased 2,042 heads (34.2% of total imports) of cattle from Germany and the Netherlands.

Among the leaders in the imports of live cattle also were the Bryansk (615 heads) and Yaroslavl (476 heads) regions.

Imports of live pigs fell to a minimum and amounted to only 414 animals which is 53.6% lower than last year's level. The main suppliers of pigs to the Russian Federation are Denmark (56% of total imports) and the Netherlands (44%). The Tambov region became the leading importer, although small consignments were also imported into the Lipetsk, Voronezh and Belgorod regions.

Poultry imports to Russia decreased by 23% over the reporting period. At the beginning of this year, Russian producers faced a shortage of hatching eggs and day old chicks. The share of foreign breeding material in domestic poultry farming is up to 95-98%. Hatching eggs and day old chicks are supplied to the country by  multinational companies. To reduce dependence on imports, the Ministry of Agriculture has developed a subprogram to create Russia`s own competitive broiler cross. It is planned to allocate 5.1 billion rubles from the federal budget for the implementation of the plans.

Nevertheless, purchases of live poultry abroad are still being carried out, although they have significantly decreased compared to last year. The leading supplier is the European Union (90% of shipments), but poultry shipments from the United States also accounted for a small share. The main buyers of live poultry abroad were the Leningrad (32%), Moscow (18.7%) and Kaliningrad (17.9%) regions.

Russia increased live cattle imports