September 8, 2009
Russia to see more cattle slaughtering
Most Russian farmers are feeling the economic pinch and are deciding to reduce their herds and send them to slaughter.
Although the level of meat production in Russia is steadily increasing, the number of cattle and pigs are falling.
According to the Russian Institute of Agricultural Marketing, the number of cattle in Russia fell by 10 percent in 2008, and currently continues to decline.
After the implementation of meat import restrictions, the volume of imports to Russia has significantly declined. But the reduction in imports could not revive the Russian meat production.
According to sources in the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia, the supply of beef on smuggling schemes, and the import through the CIS countries resulted in lower prices in the domestic market and made the financial struggles of the local farmers less.
Russia had no more internal resources to revive its herd, thus having to buy young stock abroad, analysts said.
Another reason is poor grain yield, no more than 67.2 million tonnes this year, resulting in a sharp rise of feed prices.
