World meat industry news

In Russia, there is a shortage of highly productive breeding animals. The import of breeding young animals is growing: for example, in 2021, 50.8 thousand heads were imported into the country, which is 17.6 thousand heads higher than in 2016.

“Today, the industry cannot fully provide itself with the necessary breeding stock. As a result, we are forced to import livestock from abroad. Thus, according to our estimates, based on the data of the Federal Customs Service of Russia, the share of imported breeding cattle in 2021 reached 36.3%,” states Alexey Tikhomirov, Ph.D. Federal Research Center for Animal Husbandry - VIZH named after Academician L. K. Ernst.

In turn, Yegor Lebedko, Professor of the Department of Animal Feeding, Private Animal Science and Processing of Animal Products, Bryansk State Agrarian University, Doctor of Agricultural Sciences, Academician of the International Academy of Sciences of Ecology, Human Safety and Nature, recalls: the purchase of imported livestock is a common practice that allows you to refresh the breeding herd. “We are talking about a classic technique for building a highly productive herd. But for this it is enough to purchase 50-100 heads in one farm. What happens in reality? Agroholdings buy 500-1000 heads of imported livestock at a time. And okay, if Russia did not have a worthy alternative. But after all, domestic animals are quite competitive, they are better adapted to our technologies and have higher adaptive characteristics,” he says.

Moreover, one cannot expect that foreign partners will supply their best animals to the Russian market. According to Yegor Yakovlevich, all livestock abroad is divided into categories A, B, C, D. Animals of the last, fourth category come to our country. “Thus, foreigners keep the best breeding stock for themselves. And we are offered animals with less productivity,” the expert continues.