The ‘Review of the Russian Federation’s Meat Industry’ predicted that Russia will rapidly increase meat exports in coming years, and that 2017 export values could be twice that achieved in 2013.
“This year exports of meat from Russia will reach US$113.7m in monetary terms. Also, according to data published in the Review, in 2017 the export value will reach US$252.8m. Thus, the projected growth in terms of exports of meat produced in Russia will stand at the level of 21-22% per year,” said experts from the agency.
Poultry dominates
The report also revealed that poultry was the fastest-growing segment of Russia’s meat export industry.
“Poultry dominated meat exports from Russia last year, reaching US$64.1m. Pork exports amounted to US$4m, while beef exports were worth US$3.2m. Exports of other types of meat totalled US$22.5m,” it said.
This trend is expected to continue, with poultry exports forecast to reach US$168.8m by 2017.
However, experts at Restko predicted that all segments will experience export growth in the coming years, with beef in particular expected to increase its share of the export market.
In 2017, beef export values are expected to reach US$17.6m, while pork exports could reach US$9.7m
Limited markets
The report added that Russia was still struggling to find markets for its meat products outside the Customs Union, so most exports of meat products will go to countries of the post-Soviet Union.
“Research has shown that a key consumer of Russian meat is currently Kazakhstan. A couple of years ago meat exports to this country were worth US$5.657m, but in the past year exports in value terms rose by 10 times to US$56.349m,” it stated.
“In total, the last year has been very successful for Russian meat exports. The country exported meat products worth a total of US$93.7m, which is 2.8 times more than in 2008.”