World meat industry news

Russia copes with the production of meat, poultry, milk and fish products. However, for now, there is an acute issue with parent stocks, breeding material and the production of veterinary preparations. Vadim Khlestkin, director of the All-Russian Research Institute of Genetics and Breeding of Farm Animals, believes that this problem can be solved with the help of state orders and the creation of breeding and scientific centers.

“Our science is able to support agriculture. But we must receive government orders. Small farms cannot order a scientific development from us, because they do not have money for these studies,” the expert says.

According to him, domestic breeding science is still dependent on imports. The fact is that chips and various reagents are not produced in our country. We are experiencing big problems in the production of breeding material and parent stocks. At the same time, the expert noted that work in this direction is underway. For example, on the basis of the institute headed by him, several breeds of chicken have been bred - the Pushkin, Leningrad golden-gray, Tsarskoye Selo breed. But at the level of the country's economy, this is a drop in the ocean.

The expert noted that at the moment 100 percent of the parent stocks of broiler poultry are imported into our country from abroad. So, in egg poultry, as in pig breeding, imports are about 80 percent. Its share has increased in recent years in the field of ox semen. So, in 2018, about 2.8 million doses were imported, in 2021 the number of imported doses of bull semen exceeded 4 million. At the same time, imported products do not always have the indicators necessary for a particular region of the country. According to Vadim Khlestkin, domestic centers could adapt to the needs of the domestic market.

“When the supply of seed material stops, how long will we have enough of it? Therefore, we need to take care of our own breeding of animals and the creation of a parent herd. There are poultry specialists in the country who have all the necessary competencies, they could work in breeding centers,” Vadim Khlestkin summed up.

According to him, the creation in our country of selection and research centers for the production of breeding material will reduce the dependence of meat producers on imports.