February 16, 2010

Russia reports shortage of slaughterhouses

Russia is experiencing shortage of slaughter and butchering facilities despite its active development of livestock farms and meat processing plants.

"During the 1990's many Russian slaughter plants were closed. Due to imports' growth such enterprises became non-demanded," said Sergey Yushin, chief of the Executive Committee of the Russian National Meat Association.
 

The vast majority of modern meat processing plants were built for further processing of frozen meat imports and have lack of butchering facilities. 
 

Currently, only the major players in the Russian meat market such as Euroservice and Cherkizovo Group have all the necessary processing infrastructure - feed mills, slaughterhouses, de-boning shops, as well as their own disposal plants. 
 

Yushin says that it's possible that during the next several years the supply of pigs for slaughter will exceed demand. "From time to time we will experience a significant decline in prices for live pigs and half carcasses. In other words, the level of profitability will fall, while the payback period of the projects will increase, he said.