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Meat, Fish & Dairy Processing Industry Latest News

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Monday, March 01, 2010
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Russia - 85 per cent Meat Self Sufficiency by 2015

RUSSIA - The Russian government has approved a new plan to increase domestic food output, including taking domestic meat self sufficiency to 85 per cent and milk and dairy products to 90 per cent by 2015, as part of its national security strategy to 2020, according to Gerard Brickley, Manager, from the Meat Division of the Irish food agency Bord Bia.

Meat production has been rising steadily over recent years, with the exception of beef, where lack of profitability has resulted in a decline in output.

Significant investment is underway, such as the $500 million plan by CPF – Thailand’s leading agro-industrial food company to expand its pig production in Russia to 1 million head by 2013.

Two of Russia’s own large meat producers – Miratorg and Suragro have recently announced intentions to purchase 30,000 and 3,000 cows respectively, specifically for the production of marbled beef.

Despite various import controls, which domestic sources insist are necessary to allow internal production to prosper, problems dog the plans.

New technical standards for dairy products contributed to an acute shortage of raw milk in the fourth quarter of 2009. Disease control is problematic – recent outbreaks of classical swine fever in wild boars, and cases of African Swine Fever, for which there is no vaccine, and which resulted in the culling of over 7,000 animals, and imposition of control zones up to 100km radius. Availability of long term credit is also an issue, particularly for Russian farmers, most of whom don’t own the property they farm, and therefore have little collateral for loan applications.

Currency values and the economic status of the country will of course also influence demand for meat, which local analysts believe may decline by deven to 10 per cent over the next 2 years – with beef in particular losing out to chicken and pork.

None of this is, however, putting a dint in McDonald’s plans to accelerate its current expansion level of 20 per cent per annum.

Indeed one element of this expansion that evidences the strengthening position of the domestic Russian food industry is the fact that McDonald’s now secure 80 per cent of their raw ingredients from Russian suppliers.

TheMeatSite News Desk



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