November 2, 2020

Significant growth of Russian meat exports in first nine months of 2020

Russia's meat exports for the first nine months of this year have grown significantly, with meat and by-products worth $610 million delivered to foreign markets - up 79% compared to the same period in 2019, according to Russia's Minister of Agriculture, Dmitry Patrushev.

The main buyer of Russian meat is China, which this year imported products worth $235 million - 3.9 times more than in 2019.

In second place is Vietnam, which increased its purchases by 3.8 times to $92 million. Ukraine takes third place, having purchased Russian meat for $80 million (+14%). Exports to Hong Kong increased 2.1 times to $47 million, and to Kazakhstan, to $35 million (+48%).

Poultry meat accounts for the major share of the total volume of exports for this segment, which increased to $317 million (+71%). The growth is primarily due to the dynamics of supplies to China. In January-September 2020, the export of poultry meat to China increased to 113,000 tonnes, and in terms of value, it increased 3.5 times to $208 million.

Exports of Russian pork and by-products in the first nine months of this year showed more than a two-fold growth, reaching 131,000 tonnes and $219 million in terms of value.

Positive dynamics are observed in all major supply directions. Thanks to the opening of the Vietnamese market in November 2019, Russian companies managed to supply pork worth $86 million.

In 2020, Russia supplied 9.4,000 tonnes of beef to foreign markets worth $48 million, which is 2.9 times more than in 2019.

The leader among buyers of Russian beef is China, whose market access was opened in mid-January. For the first nine months of this year, more than 5,000 tonnes of Russian beef worth $25 million was exported to China.

- Ministry of Agriculture (Russia)