Who is to blame for the rise in price of chicken

The situation is commented by Sergey Lisovsky, State Duma deputy, committee on agrarian issues

– Poultry MEAT producers can no longer artificially restrain prices. In October, their losses reached a peak - the cost of chicken meat has recently increased by 20-25%. Small and medium-sized producers are forced to stop work: they do not have working capital to buy feed ...

I have already written about the position of poultry meat producers. And now new problems have been added to the existing problems. Count yourself. Prices for packaging (+40-60%) and transportation (+10-20%) went up. Trade networks buy poultry meat from producers at 110-112 rubles per kg, while the minimum that they should receive in order to continue to exist is 150-160 rubles / kg. For citizens, chicken in stores goes for 300 and more rubles / kg. In general, one should not be surprised that with such a bunch of problems, chicken prices will inevitably rise.

And now there is a new problem - all the protein components of feed have risen sharply in price: soybean meal, bagasse, sunflower cake ... Their price in the world has increased, so feed began to be actively exported, and the price soared in RUSSIA as well. Meanwhile, they make up to 30-35% of all poultry feed. it is easy to guess: since the price of feed has increased, poultry meat will also become more expensive.

The Ministry of Agriculture is currently working on measures to support poultry farming, but the Ministry of Finance has not given much money yet. Although even in the months remaining until the end of the year there are opportunities to increase payments to producers, there is a certain reserve that can be redistributed. The Ministry of Agriculture supported the production of breeding eggs, for example. As far as I know, the department wants to support not only poultry farming, but also a reduction in the cost of feed in general - after all, all these meal, bagasse, cake are not only for poultry, but also for pork. There is a ready-made program for subsidizing feed, but it all depends on the Ministry of Finance.

Some experts mention bird flu when explaining the inevitability of higher prices for poultry meat. But I would not say that birds were heavily destroyed in Russia. It's just that our poultry farmers have problems due to the fact that bird flu occurs periodically. In particular, in winter and spring in Europe there was a very strong bird flu, many countries closed down. Accordingly, the price of a broiler egg has doubled, and we import a lot of it. Accordingly, the cost of broilers has increased in Russia.

But I want to note again: buyers in stores see a price that is twice as high as that received by manufacturers. And this has been the case for many years now. Meanwhile, I was the author of the law on the regulation of trade activities, through which the greed of trade networks could be curbed. But it has not yet been accepted. And today the situation is already becoming indecent: if the manufacturer only compensates for the growth in production costs, then retail chains are fighting for super profits.

We, unfortunately, are very loyal to the monopolists. And retail chains are the same monopolists in the retail market.