The price of chicken meat in retail fell over the past year by more than 10%. This is the only type of meat that continues to rapidly decline, despite the overall inflation. In comparison, pork prices fell by only 1.7%, while beef prices even grew by 2% (as of December 2017 by December 2016). Experts say that if the cost of the chicken continues to decline, it could negatively affect the profitability of the producers.
Expert of the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies Anna Kudryakova notes that the growth in production of chicken meat in the last year was about 8%. Thus, the average volume of chicken meat produced monthly in 2016 was 377 thousand tons, by the middle of 2017 this figure exceeded 405 thousand tons, by the end of the year it was already 420 thousand tons. The general director of Agriconsult LLC Andrey Golokhvastov agrees with her. "The reduction in prices led to an increase in the production of chicken meat due to the emergence of a large number of new and expanding enterprises already operating in the market, lower prices for feed and grain," he said.
According to the forecast of Russian Poultry Union, the production of poultry meat in Russia in 2018 may increase by another 100 thousand tons (2%) and exceed 4.9 million tons in slaughter weight. "Those projects that are already being implemented, in which the funds are invested, will still be finished, the producers plan to enter the retail network and export," Kudryakova said.
Experts pay attention to the fact that the growth in production of chicken meat is seriously outstripping the growth in demand for these products. The popularity of chicken meat in the production of sausages (according to the estimates of the dean of the Institute of Refrigeration and Biotechnology Alexander Ishevsky, now sausages include up to 40-50% of chicken meat) can not compensate for the slow growth in consumption of pure chicken meat in retail. According to the forecasts of Russian Poultry Union, the consumption of chicken meat will grow only by 0.6% in the end of 2018 - up to 33.7 kg / person. As for the export of chicken meat, it is now extremely small - Russian chicken is not allowed to enter foreign markets, including because of non-compliance with veterinary requirements, Golokhvastov said.
Source: agrovesti.net.
