World meat industry news

From next year, the Ministry of Agriculture may ban the import of soybeans and soybean meal into our country, provided that it is possible to harvest its own crop of this crop higher than last year (5.5 million tons).

According to AB-Center, soybean consumption this year will grow to 6.5-6.8 million tons. It is curious that in the presence of a ban on the cultivation of GMO plants in our country, the import of genetically modified soybeans was not stopped in any way. However, it is extremely difficult to find non-GM soybeans on the world market: for example, in Brazil, which is the main supplier of soybeans to the Russian Federation (74% of total imports), non-GMO soybeans account for only 2% of the sown area. Therefore, the introduction of such a ban will lead to a shortage of soybeans and soybean meal for the production of feed (its share in the weight of feed is 20%, and in the cost price it reaches 45%). In principle, Russian processors and livestock breeders would have enough of their own soybeans if they managed to expand export flows into the country. Thus, the Central and Far Eastern Federal Districts account for more than half of the total soybean production, but almost all Far Eastern soybeans (1.2 million tons were harvested last year) go to China. In general, Russia exports about 2.5 million tons to China and the EAEU countries. So far, it is not possible to arrange transportation of soybeans from the Far East to the west of the country.

As a result, with the introduction of restrictions on imports, farmers predict a new increase in feed prices (before that, they rose in price due to rising prices for vitamins and feed additives) and, as a result, for finished products - primarily for chicken and turkey meat. Chicken meat has already become more expensive than pork in recent months: for example, in June the wholesale price for a chicken carcass was 170-175 rubles, while pork cost 121 rubles per kilogram.