Beef, whose price has increased by almost 6% since the beginning of the year, will increase in price by another 7% to 10% during the New Year holidays. According to industry representatives, there is no reason to reduce the cost of meat in the near future.
“We have now come to the conclusion that beef production is the only industry that has not been able to close or at least seriously reduce the need for imports,” Roman Kostyuk, general director of the National Union of Producers, said in an interview. of Beef. with Parliamentary Newspaper.
According to the expert, Russia imports between 280,000 and 320,000 tons of beef per year, which represents 20% of total production. At the same time, national production represents only 18% and the rest of the meat is “essentially waste from the dairy sector.”
According to Rosstat, since the beginning of the year the cost of beef has increased by 5.9%. Industry representatives expect a price increase “at the level of inflation, that is, between 7% and 10%.” As the specialist points out, growth will continue in the future.
Among the reasons: the characteristics of production, the reduction in the number of livestock, the increase in costs and the inversion of the proportion of milk and meat production.
“In Russia there are now six dairy cows for every beef cow, while in the rest of the world there are three to five beef cows for every dairy cow,” Kostyuk added.
The president of the Russian Consumer Union, Pyotr Shelishch, agreed that beef will only become more expensive, but stressed that the pace of price growth “cannot be considered prohibitive.”
Shelishch recalled that in the same period the price of pork increased by 14.4% and the cost of chicken meat by 29.7%.
At the same time, the Ministry of Agriculture reported that it does not expect a significant increase in prices in the food market for the New Year holidays. The ministry’s press service, TASS reports, notes an increase in the production of cattle for slaughter at a “good pace” in 2023.
Photo: Unsplash
Author:
Akhmed Sadulayev
Source: RB
I am a professional journalist and content creator with extensive experience writing for news websites. I currently work as an author at Gadget Onus, where I specialize in covering hot news topics. My written pieces have been published on some of the biggest media outlets around the world, including The Guardian and BBC News.
