Lamb meat is rapidly becoming more expensive. What are the reasons?

The HEAD of the National MEAT Association, Sergei Yushin, draws attention to the fact that lamb in RUSSIA is a niche product: of the total meat consumption of 80 kg per person per year, only 1.5 kg of lamb accounts for it.

The expert says that lamb production in the Russian Federation has been stagnating for many years precisely because of the lack of great demand. This meat is more difficult to cook, it has a specific taste and smell. It is not very popular in Russia, with the exception of certain regions. But there they buy lamb not in retail chains, but in markets or even raise lambs themselves. And here the pricing is not entirely market-based - in this case, no one considers the cost of labor or feed. The rest of the lamb goes to national restaurants, where people are willing to pay a lot of money for it . But they can afford it, and you definitely shouldn’t worry about them. But for the average Russian, rising prices for lamb have no effect at all, Yushin believes.

In addition, the product sold in retail chains has changed a lot over the past 20 years - now it is chilled lamb cut into individual packages, which is why it costs more.

In addition, the rise in prices is explained by the whitewashing of this market - many producers are coming out of the shadows, starting to pay taxes, comply with biosafety requirements , rules for keeping animals, etc. And this also costs money.

Also, our lamb is of high quality and can withstand competition in foreign markets - even those countries that themselves produce lamb in large quantities buy it.

“So if prices rise, lamb producers may finally be interested in increasing their production. If there is no income, there is no point in it,” says Yushin.

Beef is also not cheap. But all over the world it is considered elite meat. The cost of its production is very high. “Nobody in the world eats beef every day,” notes Yushin. At the same time, in Russia, beef consumption is 14 kg per person per year, and in the world the average is 8.7 kg per person.

Meat consumption has been shifting towards broiler and pork for many years. Turkey meat is also becoming increasingly popular in Russia. But so far its consumption is low. Last year, turkey meat production in Russia amounted to about 420 thousand tons, that is, consumption was about 3 kg per person per year. ButFor many people, turkey can become a substitute for either boring chicken or expensive beef. Therefore, turkey has great prospects in Russia, unlike lamb, says Yushin.

The most popular meat remains chicken . So far, its production in the Russian Federation is not growing - in the first quarter there was a decrease of 0.4% compared to the same period last year. But the situation is not critical - prices for consumers remain stable, the expert notes.