World meat industry news

Russia should create an additional state reserve of canned meat and ban meat imports in order to support the industry and remove “surplus” raw materials from the market. This idea was voiced by the senator from the Belgorod region, ex-governor of the region, Yevgeny Savchenko during the government hour in the Federation Council.

“What will it give - firstly, we will create a strategic food reserve, which is urgently needed in the current situation. Secondly, the surplus production of poultry and pork, which is about 1 million tons, will find reliable domestic sales under external restrictions,” Savchenko commented on the idea of ​​increasing the production of canned food. “Thirdly, enterprises producing canned products will work at full capacity, and fourthly, we will create an effective anti-inflationary intervention tool for the future to regulate prices in the meat products market.”

The senator also suggested recommending that the government decide on a complete ban on meat imports, including from friendly countries of South America. The head of the Ministry of Agriculture, Dmitry Patrushev, during the government hour said that after a slowdown in the increase in meat production last year, in particular due to the unfavorable epizootic situation, positive dynamics are recorded in the industry in 2022, the volume of production of livestock and poultry for slaughter is expected to be at the level 16 million tons. The level of self-sufficiency in meat will exceed 100%, while the target indicator of the food security doctrine is 85%.

In September, the Ministry of Agriculture proposed to the Ministry of Economic Development to extend the duty-free import of beef in 2023 within a quota of 200,000 tons. Such a measure was already introduced at the beginning of this year for 12 months and was supposed to curb the rise in prices for meat and meat products.

Director General of the National Union of Beef Producers Roman Kostyuk then said that the duty-free import of frozen beef in 2022 caused a significant reduction in purchase prices for young beef cattle grown by farmers. It also led to a sharp suspension of investment plans of industry enterprises. “If the tariff exemption for frozen cattle meat is extended in 2023, this measure will negatively affect the industry, significantly worsening its performance,” Kostyuk believes. “This, in turn, will lead to the need to increase imports, and beef production will again return to overwhelming dependence on imports.”

Also in the first half of the year, there was a zero duty on pork imports within a quota of 100 thousand tons, but it was not chosen: deliveries for this period, although increased to almost 13 thousand tons against 4.4 thousand tons in January-June 2021, this volume did not have a serious impact on the domestic market, the National Union of Pig Breeders previously noted. The zero duty rate was not extended for the second half of the year.

According to the results of January-August this year, the production of livestock and poultry for slaughter in agricultural organizations amounted to almost 8.4 million tons in live weight, which is 5.5% more than the same period last year, follows from the data of Rosstat. Including the production of cattle decreased by 3.6% to 656.8 thousand tons, pigs - increased by 7.6% to 3.4 million tons, poultry - increased by 5.4% to 4.3 million tons.