World meat industry news

Against the backdrop of an acute shortage of its own volumes of beef, Russia is ready to increase imports of Kazakh beef. This was told to us by the Director General of the Russian National Union of Beef Producers (NSPG), a member of the Expert Council of the National Agrarian Agency Roman Kostyuk.

The other day he returned from the International Agricultural Conference Lepsi 2023, which was held in the neighboring republic. There, the expert also spoke about the possibility of increasing the import of Kazakh supplies. According to his estimates, Russia is ready to buy up to 150 thousand tons of beef from this country annually, because. own production does not cover the needs of the domestic market. By the way, there are no such volumes in Kazakhstan now either, but there is a prospect, about it - below.

Russia is import dependent on beef by 20% and there are no prerequisites for reducing this imbalance at the moment, says Kostyuk. The main problem is the almost complete absence of the meat direction of cattle. That is, the main part of beef (up to 80%) is produced from dairy cattle, the number of which is already declining. At the beginning of February this year, in all categories of farms in Russia, there were 7.7 million head of cows. This is 0.6% or 46 thousand less than a year earlier, Soyuzmoloko reported. At the same time, beef production has already decreased by 3.6% over the past year, to 1.58 million tons.

This situation is naturally reflected in the rise in prices. To stabilize them in 2022, the Ministry of Agriculture allowed the import of 200,000 tons of frozen meat from Brazil duty-free, at a normal rate of 15%. This year, the quota was halved based on the ratio of consumption and production. But the NPG believes that such targeted measures, which are aimed at processing, have a negative impact on domestic production, and that a different approach is needed to the industry.

“Where there is a need for social products, there is inexpensive chicken and pork, and beef cattle breeding all over the world is the formation of a middle class,” Roman Kostyuk said earlier at ROSNG. He believes that the development of this area of work could become one of the drivers for the domestic economy. For example, when creating regional clusters for the production of meat, hundreds of thousands of tons of rolled metal alone would be required.

World meat production to grow by 15% by 2031 - FAO

In the next 30 years, the shortage of beef in the world, according to the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), will reach 3 million tons. Against this background, Russia, to a lesser extent, and Kazakhstan, to a greater extent, has every opportunity to take a leading position in the world market, because. there is room to grow, the head of the NSPG explained. It should be noted that the capabilities of the neighboring republic are also confirmed by Western experts. Frank Graves, an international meat production expert, said that Kazakhstan has the largest potential in the world in this area. In our country, on the contrary, the National Union of Beef Producers so far predicts a firm trend to reduce beef output.

At the same time, it cannot be said that the Russian authorities are doing nothing to develop market production. In particular, this year the Ministry of Agriculture began to subsidize the cultivation of bulls for slaughter. 600 million rubles have been allocated for these purposes. “However, the mechanism for providing a subsidy is such that not all livestock breeders will be able to use the support measure, but only specialized fattening farms or those who fatten bulls to slaughter on their own,” Alexei Gruzdev, general director of Streda Consulting, told Vedomosti. At the same time, it should be understood that the payback of newly created meat production facilities exceeds ten years. In order to reduce import dependence on beef to a minimum, it will take at least this time. In the meantime, it will have to be purchased, including from neighbors. “In 3-5 years, Russia may become one of the largest consumers of Kazakh beef,” said Roman Kostyuk.

By the way

Kazakhstan reached self-sufficiency in this type of meat five years ago, and production there continues to develop. Export of beef over the past year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic, increased by 2.5 times.