February 22, 2010

Red meat supply may run low in Russia

Russia may face a shortage of red meat this year due to a recent sharp decline in imports and the inability of local producers to fill in the gaps.

Local production currently accounts for about 50% of the domestic meat industry, according to Russian analysts.

But the production of local companies is usually expensive, and they cannot ensure a regular supply of quality products to the market. A way to solve this problem is a significant expansion and further consolidation of the industry, said analysts.

Despite the efforts of the Russian government to boost domestic meat production with huge loans, a real increase in production is expected to come only in the 2015-17 year, especially in the cattle industry.

 
Imports currently account for 25-30% of total meat consumption in Russia, with the rest represented by domestic producers. As such, Russia always lacks a certain meat, which leads to unstable market prices, according to Sergey Yushin, President of the Russian National Meat Union (NMA).