World meat industry news

The business publication Business FM discussed with experts the decree of the Russian government on the abolition of customs duties on the import of frozen chicken meat as a raw material for processing within the quota of 140 thousand tons in 2024.

In principle, China and South American countries: Argentina and Brazil can supply poultry meat to Russia. True, the abolition of duties does not guarantee supplies.

The interlocutors were asked whether such a benefit is needed, whether imported chicken can be considered as a competitor to a similar domestically produced product, and, finally, whether Russian regulators will set price limits for imported chicken?

The president of the consulting company Agrifood Strategies, Albert Davleev, estimates 140 thousand tons as, in principle, a considerable volume (in the last two to three years, Russia has imported from 10 to 30 tons of chicken meat, and this was not advertised). According to the expert, the arrival of foreign products can affect the domestic market only if their price is competitive. Meanwhile, at the moment the reaction seems to be belated: prices for poultry meat have been declining for the fifth week in a row and have already approached the April level.

It will be possible to draw more far-reaching conclusions only when purchase prices become known, Davleev stated. A similar situation was observed eight months ago, after the announcement of duty-free beef imports, which turned out to be prohibitively expensive given the comparable quality of Russian and foreign meat.

General Director of the Turkey Association Yuri Markov said that if the epidemic of highly pathogenic avian influenza continues next year, poultry farms will close, which implies an increase in the import of poultry products from abroad. The natural question here is: how will Russia support domestic producers? Today, the FAS and the Prosecutor General's Office are forcing it to withstand a biased and unprofitable price, but this is the road to bankruptcy or a decrease in production volumes, which means an impending shortage of domestic supply and the need to increase imports. It turns out to be a vicious circle. To get out of it, it is necessary to determine the price of the imported product for the sake of healthy competition.

General Director of Lipetsk Myaso LLC Sergei Oganov suggests that duty-free import of chicken meat will not affect domestic producers, but can save the consumer market from sharp and disorderly price increases as a preventive measure. In his opinion, 140 thousand tons is enough to regulate the market in conditions of shortage, but not enough to influence domestic production. It is worth remembering that for about 20 years, Russia annually imported about 2 million tons of poultry meat.