What will stop rising chicken prices in Russia: four measures will solve the problem

In mid-November, chicken prices across the country increased by 30% on average.

Photo: Alexey BULATOV

We need to produce more poultry meat. And sell more in the domestic market. This is one of President Vladimir Putin’s last instructions to the government. Additional state support measures that contribute to this must be developed until December 20.

This instruction logically follows from Rosstat reports of recent months. Suddenly, chicken became one of the most expensive products since the beginning of the year: by mid-November, prices across the country had increased by an average of 30%.

This topic became one of the main ones at the first meeting of the Farmers’ Club “AGROSOYUZ KP”, a new project of “Komsomolskaya Pravda”.

– What do you need? First, increase the volume of concessional loans to the required levels. Because our lending rate is now 15-17% per year, compared to the preferential rate of 5%,” said Sergei Yushin, head of the National Meat Association. – Secondly, veterinary medicine. We are experiencing some shortages of critical vaccines. The State should not save on veterinary services, otherwise we will not be able to develop livestock farming further. Third, predictable market conditions. Unfortunately, several meetings on the situation in the industry were like this, but we will check it and send it to the FAS (Federal Antimonopoly Service – Ed.). The arrival of the FAS and the inspection will not allow adding a single kilogram of meat to the market. Furthermore, the FAS knows very well that we have great competition in the poultry meat market and that there can be no collusion. Let’s not distract manufacturers with things that only hinder their work. And a quarter. There are staff shortages everywhere; Today, on cutting lines, not everything can be automated and robotized; There is a lot of manual labor and people work in difficult conditions. We constantly raise salaries, but people leave for higher paying industries.

Head of the executive committee of the National Meat Association Sergei Yushin. Photo: Anton Novoderezhkin/TASS

But hoping that if the export of chicken meat is temporarily limited (one of the proposals of the Ministry of Agriculture), the situation on the domestic market will improve, the head of the National Meat Association does not agree:

– First of all, we often export something different from what we consume here, because different countries have different cultures, different culinary traditions and most of the products we export, in principle, are not necessary for our market. And secondly, exports help increase production. Improves profitability and provides incentives for investment and adoption of new technologies. Because when entering the foreign market you have to compete with monsters like Brazil, the United States, the European Union and, whether you like it or not, raise your level.

As Yushin recalled, since the early 2000s, Russia has increased poultry meat production from less than 1 million tons per year to more than 5 million tons. In 2010, when 70% of the poultry on our shelves was imported, this seemed unrealistic. But the support of the State and the colossal investments of the company itself in the meat industry did their job.

– In 2023, we expected demand to grow. But not so big,” comments Sergei Yushin about the current situation. – The disposable income of the population is increasing for the first time in eight years, salaries are increasing in absolute terms in many industries, domestic tourism has increased: more than 4 million people have stayed in the country. What do we do when we travel around the country and go on vacation not to France? After all, we not only play sports and go to the theater, but we also eat a lot. The restaurant industry is today one of the channels that requires a lot of new meat. Which? The cheapest is chicken. But to achieve this it is necessary to talk not about prohibitions or restrictions, but about investments in development.