Russia substantially increasesd poultry meat consumption, production

//16 May 2012 Despite the dynamic development of the poultry meat production in Russia, the country is also actively increasing its import. In the first quarter of 2012, poultry shipments increased by 82% in value and by 60% in volume compared to the same period in 2011. Experts say that the cause behind the enormous increase is because of the relatively low volume of poultry imports at the beginning of 2011, as well as the reorientation of Russian consumers, choosing the cheaper poultry meat over the more expensive pork. The total meat production volume rose in three months by only 5%, to 238,600 tonnes. Sales increased by 24.3%, to US$ 949.6 million. The monetary increase in poultry imports can be attributed to the desire of traders to quickly use up their quota for 2012 supplies, experts say. Hence, the volume of import should fall significantly in the second quarter of 2012. A monetary rise in imports, in the exports’ opinion, is mostly due to rising of world prices. In 2012 the quotas on poultry meat import were significantly reduced compared to 2011 levels—from 857 to 330 thousand tonnes. With such measures the federal government wants to support domestic producers. The federal statistical services estimated that the increase of chicken meat imports to Russia has happened due to the increase in consumption. Russian poultry market grew by 18.3% to 842 thousand tonnes in the first quarter of 2012, compare to the same period in 2011. The physical increase amounts to 130 thousand tonnes, reflecting that Russians are eating more poultry now than in the previous year. In addition to increasing production and imports, the Russian poultry industry has also stepped up its delivery of domestic products to foreign markets—doubling to 4.1 thousands tonnes. As noted by analysts, the main markets for Russian poultry have been Hong Kong and Vietnam. Source: Vladislav Vorotnikov