Restaurateurs reported a shortage of chicken meat in Russia

Russian restaurants are faced with a meat shortage. The relevant association cited a lack of employees at poultry farms, rising feed prices and logistics problems as reasons. Chicken prices hit records this summer

There is a shortage on the Russian chicken meat market, and all consumers are faced with a difficult situation, Unirest, which manages the KFC and Rostic's fast food chains in Russia, told RIA Novosti.

“In this difficult situation, we, for our part, are doing everything possible to provide restaurants with fresh chicken meat in compliance with our high quality standards,” the company said.

The presence of a problem with the production of chicken meat was confirmed by the head of the Federation of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers of Russia (FRiO) Igor Bukharov. He said that the situation is due to a lack of employees at poultry farms, disruption of supply chains, and an increase in the cost of feed. Restaurants mainly purchase chicken from Russian producers, he noted. Bukharov expressed confidence in a quick solution to the problem: “When there is a deficit, it is replenished after some time.”

As Forbes wrote at the end of July, the cost of a kilogram of chicken then reached a historical maximum - over the year, poultry meat rose in price at retail by 6.4% - to 197.9 rubles. for 1 kg of chilled and frozen meat. At the same time, the cost of 1 kg of pork in Russian stores in July 2023 was practically no different from the level of last year (boneless meat increased in price by 0.5% - to 406.9 rubles per 1 kg, and bone-in meat - by 1.9 %, up to 314.5 rubles per 1 kg).

In the first half of this year, chicken production decreased in the Voronezh and Kursk regions (by 2 and 4%), causing an increase in prices. Output increased in the Belgorod and Bryansk regions, but this did not lead to a decrease in prices; Kommersant sources said that the increase in production could be associated with the low base of last year. These four regions account for half of all chicken produced in Central Russia. According to the newspaper, in August Belarus decided to limit chicken exports to Russia and all other countries except China .

By the fall of 2023, the growth of chicken production in Russia had almost stopped, as follows from Rosstat data, Vedomosti wrote. The Russian Poultry Union, according to the publication, warned its members in the summer about a possible reduction in production volumes. An interlocutor at one of the poultry farming companies connected the trend with the spread of diseases - according to Rosselkhoznadzor , since the beginning of 2023, five outbreaks of bird flu have been identified in Russia.

The Ministry of Agriculture noted that the poultry industry “shows positive dynamics” and expressed confidence in a significant increase in chicken meat production at the end of the year.

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