Russia
IMAGO / photothek 
The Russian government fears rising consumer prices for meat and therefore allows duty-free imports.
RUSSIA, Moscow. Russia's pig production has increased sharply in recent years. In 2021, growth slowed significantly. Imports should prevent higher prices.
In Russia, the expansion of pork production received a damper last year. According to Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev, 2021 milk and meat production increased year-on-year, but growth rates were subdued. For example, milk production is expected to have increased by 0.2 percent to about 32.3 million tons and total meat production by 0.6 percent to 15.7 million tons of live weight (LW). At the same time, the volume of pork - after previous years with high growth rates - grew by only 0.2 percent to 5.5 million t LW. Estimates by the market research company Emeat even assume, on the basis of slaughter weight, a decline in Russian pork production last year. In 2020, Russian meat production was still growing at a rate of three percent. For pork, the figure was as high as 8.9 percent.
Duty-free import quotas for beef and pork
A major reason for the much slower growth in pork production, he said, has been animal losses due to African swine fever (ASF). As Yuri Kovalev, chairman of the National Pig Breeders Association, explained to the press, in addition to ASF, other animal health problems such as porcine respiratory and reproductive syndrome (PRRS), regional droughts, and an increase in production costs have slowed domestic pig production. Because supply is lower than originally anticipated and to prevent price increases for consumers, Russia's government had announced in November that it would set the import tariff rate at zero for a quota of 100,000 t of pork in the first half of 2022. For beef imports, a duty exemption for 200,000 t had been announced.
Source: fleischwirtschaft.de; AgE
