Ministry: Jan–Jun meat prices fall 3–13%, threatened by import duty

MOSCOW, Jul 3 (PRIME) – Russian meat product prices shrank by 3–13% in January–June, the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement late on Tuesday.

Earlier on Tuesday, representatives for sectorial associations of meat producers told PRIME that a recommendation of the Finance Ministry to charge 4 billion rubles of additional markups on imports of feed additives would inevitably lead to an increase in prices of meat products for the end consumers.

“As of June 27, the price of pork in live weight VAT excluded shrank by 4.7% as compared with the end of December 2018 to 104.03 rubles per kilogram, for semi-carcasses of pigs by 5.3% to 148.74 rubles per kilogram. Prices for live poultry stood at 79.89 rubles per kilogram, a 3.2% contraction, while prices for poultry amounted to 102.23 rubles per kilogram, a 13% decrease,” the ministry said.

The prices contracted simultaneously with growth of industrial meat output, which rose by 10.5% on the year to 1.11 million tonnes in January–May.

“The Agriculture Ministry expects combined production of cattle and poultry for slaughter in live weight to rise by 1.8% to 15.15 million tonnes in 2018, with pigs output growing by 4.1%, poultry output by 0.6%, and cattle output by 1.1%,” the ministry said.

The ministry also quoted the Federal State Statistics Service as saying that pork consumer prices fell 1.7% to 271.35 rubles per kilogram and poultry prices shrank 4.1% to 143.73 rubles per kilogram this year.

(63.2265 rubles – U.S. $1)

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