In the first two months, beef supply fell by 35.2% to 49,700t, pork by 19.8% to 64,100t, and poultry meat by 27.1% to 45,300t on the same period the previous year. Russia has reached the lowest level of meat imports since the fall of the Soviet Union.
At the same time, according to the report from the Ministry, domestic producers have partly replaced imports in the national market, but not fully.
"In January this year Russia increased its livestock and poultry production by 8.3% to 0.9mt on a year-on-year basis. Pork production in the same period increased by 16.3% to 200,200t, poultry meat by 3.3% to 391,500t, while production of beef decreased by 6.8% to 65,800t compared to January 2013," announced the Ministry of Agriculture’s press service.
Record level of self-sufficiency
Representatives of the National Meat Association (NMA) claim these figures should be considered as good news as Russia has reached a new record in meat self-sufficiency. According to the NMA’s head of the executive committee Sergey Yushin, the current trend is happening as Russia has struggled to reduce meat imports during recent years.
"We have already reduced dependence on imports of poultry meat to 10-12%, and a lot of progress has been made in the development of pig production over the past seven years; its production has increased by 90% during this period," he said.
The only serious problem, Yushin observed, was with beef production. However, despite stagnation there was still some progress for beef.
"The number of livestock has stopped falling, and large-scale projects in this area have recently been launched, but it will take many years for us to become self-sufficient in beef," said Yushin.
Temporary phenomenon
However, according to a spokesman from the Ministry of Agriculture, who did not wish to be named, the growth in meat production in the first months of 2014 is a temporary phenomenon, associated with the fact that manufacturers have increased the volume of slaughter in response to the numerous trade sanctions that have put the Russian meat market on the verge of a supply deficit.
"This has partly happened due to the efforts of the authorities to avoid shortages in the domestic market and partly due to the favourable market conditions for producers – increased prices and so on. However, our producers are not able to maintain supplies at this level. Russia urgently needs to restore imports, primarily for beef and pork," said the source.
However, he added that the Ministry has the situation under control and, in the event of a real deficit, the decision to restore imports can be taken very quickly.