Please, buy some pork… 🐷🇷🇺

Remember the oversupply crisis in Russia we talked about in a previous edition? (You can read about it here.) Well, it’s getting worse – 250,000 additional tonnes of pork are expected to land on the domestic market this year, according to Yuri Kovalev, chairman of the Russian Union of pork producers.

• Mr. Kovalev says the country is likely to increase domestic production by 200,000 tonnes this year. Plus, an additional 50,000 tonnes are projected to land on the domestic market due to a slump in exports.

So here’s the picture: domestic consumption has to jump by 7% to offset the rising supply.

• The best-case scenario is that pork prices will stabilize in the second half of 2022, so the way that consumption can grow is through state aid given to low-income families with children and an increase in salaries in the public sector.

There’s been a rise in demand for pork in the Russian market in the first half of 2022 when compared to the same period of the previous year, while beef and poultry consumption has dropped. So people are more willing to buy pork cuts than chicken filets, and the trend is likely to continue.