World meat industry news

The Ministry has summed up the six-year results of the food counter embargo introduced by the Presidential Decree No. 560 as of August 6, 2014 "On Application of Certain Special Economic Measures to Ensure the Security of the Russian Federation".

Over this period, the Russian agro-industrial complex has displayed significant development dynamics. Today Russia is well self-sufficient in basic food products, whilst actively increasing its agriexport potential.
According to the Minister of Agriculture Dmitry Patrushev, the most important result of recent years is tens of thousands of jobs in the agricultural sector: “Starting up and intensive development of agricultural enterprises throughout the country has much relieved the employment issues in rural areas. Moreover, today, Russia, like the rest of the world, is facing various consequences of the coronavirus pandemic. So, the agro-industrial complex becomes a real a job donor for other sectors and is ready to assimilate lots of specialists from a variety of industries, including high-tech areas”, states the head of the Ministry.
Over the past six years, Russia has cut food imports by one third – from $43.3 billion in 2013 to $30 billion in 2019. So, for pork it decreased almost tenfold – in 2013 the country imported it for $2.6 billion, whilst in 2019 the total was just $270 million. For cattle meat imports fell 2.5 times – from $3.2 billion to $1.3 billion, poultry – almost twice – from $911 million to $410 million, vegetables and dairy products – by a third. Imports of tomatoes is 42.1% less – from $1.1 billion to $639 million, apples and pears – by 50.8% – from $1.2 billion to $586 million.
Sustainable development and self-sufficiency of the national agro-industrial complex in many respects enabled changing the development paradigm from somehow import-substituting model to fairly export-oriented one. Total Russian agricultural export is up by a half amounting to $25.6 billion in 2019 against $16.8 billion in 2013. In particular, a solid growth is recorded for exports of oil, meat and fat products, food and processing industry items. Russia became one of the leading global suppliers of wheat, vegetable oil, fish, sugar and a number of other agricuiltural commodities.
Over the past six years, the state support for the agro-industrial complex has become really vast. In 2013, 197.9 billion rubles were allocated on the State Program for the Development of Agriculture, whilst in 2019 such funding rose up to 311.5 billion rubles.
Thanks to these measures, among other, Russia achieved substantial extra output of the main crops:
• grain – from 92.4 million tons in 2013 to 121.2 million tons in 2019;
• sugar beet – from 39.3 million tons to 54 , 4 million tons;
• soybeans – from 1.5 million tons to 4.4 million tons);
• greenhouse vegetables – from 538 thousand tons to 1.14 million tons;
• fruits and berries in agricultural organizations – from 678 thousand tons to 1.18 million tons.
Obvious success have been achieved in animal breeding. For example, pigs in live weight for slaughter in all kinds of farms increased from 3.6 million tons in 2013 to 5.03 million tons in 2019, poultry production – from 5.2 million tons to 6.7 million tons.
“Efficiency of our farmers and effective government policies over the past six years have fruited in 22.4% surplus of overall national agricultural output and the industry itself has become one of the drivers of the Russian economy. We succeeded to change greatly the perception of agriculture as an unprofitable and risky industry, to constitute in the business community an image of modern, high-tech and profitable industry. At the end of last year, the profitability of agricultural enterprises reached 13.3%, which is almost twice as high as in 2013. Today we track stable inflow of Russian and foreign capital even from investors, who previously had nothing to do with the agro-industrial complex.
The industry has become one of the largest consumers of new technologies and advanced scientific developments. More and more people find in agriculture the opportunities and prospects both for themselves and for their businesses”, concludes Dmitry Patrushev.
In 2014-2019, the actual growth in overall agriproduction was 119%, food products – 131%, beverages – 105%. At the end of the current year, the expected growth over seven years may be 120.2%, food products – 135.3%, drinks – 108.1%, and in the agro-industrial complex as a whole – 125.1%.
In general, the restrictive measures gave an impetus to agro-industrial complex of Russia promoting massive investment inflow and thousands of additional jobs both in agriculture and in related industries.