political meat

Investigation of the "Russian Planet": why chicken is put in pork sausages, how Tambov ones occupy Moscow markets and other secrets of the Russian MEAT industry.

Five months ago, on August 6, Vladimir Putin imposed a ban on the import of meat, fish, fruits and vegetables from countries that have adopted sanctions against RUSSIA . "Russian Planet" understands how the sanctions affected the meat industry, using the example of two regional enterprises.

The Ramensky plant is located on the outskirts of the city - in the industrial area between the old and new cemeteries. Already at the entrance to the territory of the enterprise, the specific smell of butchered meat is perceptibly felt in the air. it seems that even the clothes of hard workers walking after the shift are soaked in it - 500 people work here in two shifts.

About the sanctions, workers smoking while waiting for the bus say this: “There was nothing to climb to us!”. One of the employees, Sasha, says that “the whole shop was worried about Crimea, everyone, of course, was in favor.” However, no one of them has ever rested on the annexed territory - it was cheaper to go to the Russian coast of the Sea of ​​Azov. Which of the colleagues is richer - went to Turkey.

Does foreign policy affect the state of the enterprise? “This is not our level to understand,” Sasha says indifferently. “I accepted the shift, handed over the shift, withdrew money from the Sber card.” Sasha does not notice that the price of the consumer basket has noticeably changed: “I mostly buy potatoes and pasta at home, we have a cheap canteen at the factory - I eat up meat there.” The plant is one of the few operating enterprises in the area, and most of the workers do not want to talk about work: "You can say too much."

JSC "Meat Processing Plant Ramensky" - a typical middle peasant, appeared back in 1974, fifty kilometers from the capital. Now production has almost completely switched to domestic raw materials, with the exception of the supply of certain types of Argentine beef delicacies (about 3%). Therefore, unlike competitors, Ramenets did not have to rush to look for suppliers from Brazil and Chile. For a long time, Ramenets have had suppliers from all over the Black Earth region - vans with cattle come from Kursk, Lipetsk, Belgorod. Most Russian meat companies still buy spices from abroad - pepper in India, nutmeg in Pakistan, even sausage casings are made in Spain or Germany.

Yuri Babenko, DIRECTOR of the Ramenskoye Trading House, who is responsible for the sale of products, tries to avoid answering how much the prices of the Ramenskoye meat processing plant increased after the imposition of sanctions. In the end, he admits: “For example, before a kilogram of pork in live weight cost 110 rubles, after the embargo was introduced, it went up by 20%. In May, even before the imposition of sanctions, the increase was about 7.4%.

With such a monthly price increase, how much will sausage cost in the near future? “There is a limit to the price that raw materials will reach by December,” Yuriy reassures, “But it is difficult to name the limit, since everything changes every day. In any case, closer to the New Year there will be another increase - on New Year's Eve there is always an increase in prices. Dressed in a dark jacket and turtleneck, Babenko agreed to the conversation after lengthy negotiations, but it seems that he already regretted it. With three co-workers, he sits in a cramped office with only a few creaky chairs and a T-table.

Advertising posters and certificates are hung on the walls, outside the door you can hear a marketing employee talking on the phone. “Now we are between a rock and a hard place - we are producers of the final product - sausages, but we buy semi-finished products for the production of this or that product,” Babenko unexpectedly says with feeling. The windows in the administrative building are tightly closed - the smell of meat almost does not penetrate inside. You can only hear the guards, loaders and drivers cheerfully shouting at the weight control.

“We buy Russian cattle, and suppliers immediately raised prices after the ban on Western products! And without any explanation,” says Yulia Bashmatova, commercial director of Ramensky Meat Processing Plant, who finally decided to enter into a conversation. At each uncomfortable question, employees look at each other and only then decide to answer: “Maybe logistics has risen in price, maybe they wanted to earn more money.”

“At first we were glad that we banned imports”

“At first, we were even glad that we banned imports,” says Tatyana Eremkina, general director of MPP Russkiy Sort. “We thought that now things would go uphill - they would be allowed to enter the markets, but in the end we didn’t feel the result - there is no support for domestic business.” She argues that raw material prices began to rise long before the sanctions war: “Just as in January they introduced the first bans on the import of pork from all over the European Union due to plague in the Baltics, so prices rose - almost by 100%. For example, in December, pork on the bone cost 105 rubles, in March - 195, and by the summer it was already 215. The Russians did not see such an increase in the cost of sausage simply because the quality of large producers fell.

Her small enterprise is sheltered in the village of Petrovskoe, whose dominant feature is a snow-white church of the 19th century, next to which is a churchyard with drooping crosses. The district center Shchelkovo is 30 kilometers in a straight line, both locals and visitors are employed in the production - Mari El, Volgograd Region, Udmurtia. The conversation takes place in a tiny dining room after dinner, where management and employees ate together - on the menu, fish soup, sauerkraut, buckwheat and sausages with cheese of their own production. On the window sills overlooking the neighboring industrial area, there are a dozen flowers and an icon of St. Euphrosynus, the patron saint of all Orthodox cooks.

“The increase in prices this year, according to most acquaintances in the industry, was artificial,” says the short-haired CEO. “Maybe they just let the big pig farms work so that they could pay off their billions in loans!” After the imposition of sanctions, her company is trying to play on the replacement of foreign products, including Parma ham, pate, and raw smoked neck.

"Russian variety" works only on local raw materials - the Kursk region, the Istra district of the Moscow region, the Konakovo district of the Tver region. Why did you choose these regions? “In the summer, there was nowhere to get pork. Large companies bought it all - everything was so scheduled. After all, we work with networks with a delay of 14 to 30 days - during this period we undertake to deliver the product, and they give us money. Since June, you first make an advance payment to suppliers, and only then they deliver. This summer, we had to travel a lot - we ourselves were looking for livestock (live cattle. - RP), we ourselves drove to the slaughterhouse - it’s problematic, but how else to find out where it’s cheap and of high quality? call time.

The businesswoman is sure that in the next three months the cost of raw materials will no longer go up: “Our government, I think, still thinks about people. The price will fluctuate, but a maximum of 20%. Theoretically, a reduction is even possible, but it all depends on the ministers – if they say “enough, you’ve got it!”.

"The market is unpredictable," Elena Shilina, executive director of Russian Sort, sitting next to her, laments. “In December 2013, there were no sanctions, the DOLLAR was small, oil was 110 rubles, but pork grew. Now the opposite is true: oil is declining, the dollar is jumping, but pork is fluctuating slightly. These are all the games for which the simple consumer takes the rap! I don’t know who needs to get their money back this time.”

"We want to make honest sausage"

“Large retailers are strangling the manufacturer,” says Eremkina insistently. “Networks immediately give the price at which our sausages should be on the shelf. It turns out that we must make products from their price, but we do not want to deceive the people - we want to make honest sausage. Today, Russky Sort works with elite chains - Scarlet Sails, LavkaLavka and Azbuka Vkusa. According to the management, retail chains were sent an explanation of the rise in prices, including a profitability layout - as a result, the Shchelkovsky company was met halfway. The company is pleased with such cooperation, because due to rising prices, many customers have fallen off, and its own distribution network is shrinking - out of 20 outlets, only five remain. Now, instead of agricultural markets, where they could lay out products at the manufacturer's price, modern shopping and entertainment centers are being built.

The Ramenskoye Meat Processing Plant also has several dozen branded stores in Moscow and the region, but the main sales market is, of course, retail chains like Auchan or X5 Retail Group. It includes Pyaterochka, Karusel, Kopeyka and Perekrestok stores. As a result, throughout August, ramen sausages were not on the shelves of retail chains - they were sold only by small shops.

“2014 was not easy at all for domestic meat enterprises. Few people know, but many factories with retailers have a price increase in their contracts only once a year, for those who are lucky - a maximum of two times, ”says a Russian Planet source working in the meat industry. “Moreover, this increase is possible at best by 5%. What is left to do if companies want to survive? The source says that most of the enterprises were forced to engage in alchemy in order to maintain their positions in the market - they replaced the raw meat raw materials that had risen in price with cheap ones: “Day and night they tried to drive down the cost. Any loose powder was used - soy, animal proteins. At best, they replaced beef with chicken.”

“We have contracts with the networks for three months, our right to either terminate the contract with them, or not to supply,” Babenko says in a tense voice about the inner workings of Babenko. “We simply do not supply them and warn them in advance, there are certain levers of influence in terms of contractual terms. And then the bargaining begins on the price, so that it is beneficial for us and for them. As a result, the government, according to an employee of the Ramensky plant, gave retailers the opportunity to raise prices. Officials are simply afraid that if they keep the price down, then at some point it will simply explode - and prices will immediately rise sharply.”

“We are optimists,” says Yelena Shilina, dressed in a white coat, from Russian Sort. — Our partners approach us with understanding. Over the year, prices for retailers have increased by about 50%, but they allow us to increase prices and not mix anything into meat - precisely due to the fact that we are in the niche of quality products. However, in comparison with the indicators of 2012-2013, the profit of the enterprise still fell sharply - by 30-40%. Shilina considers Klinsky Kombinat and the Rublevsky meat processing plant to be his competitors - companies with a loud status name that produce expensive tasty products: “It is unprofitable for large factories to do what we do - for 50 kilograms of high-quality meat, you need, consider, to start a separate production" .

"Cheap chicken disappeared from the market"

Of the one and a half hundred meat processing plants in the Moscow region, the leaders can be counted on the fingers - these are Ostankino, Mikoyan, Tsaritsyno and Ochakovo. It is they who determine the trends in the industry. "Federals", as the middle peasants call them, control 60% of the market in the capital and the region. Ramenets have no time to relax, in the neighborhood - in Yegorievsk and Malakhovka - production facilities breathe in the back. In the same city of Ramenskoye, Ramfood recently opened thanks to the efforts of people from the plant - now a trade war is going on between them.

“Yes, we are not interested in becoming a federal manufacturer,” Yulia says, as if apologetically. “The larger the company, the more difficult it is to respond to market changes. As part of a small company, you are more flexible!” The plant near Moscow was very lucky, not every enterprise has its own slaughterhouse.

Since 1994, ramenets can not only work on frozen meat, but also slaughter livestock on their own. “The region introduced a ban on the commissioning of new slaughterhouses, while in Moscow they are banned according to sanitary and epidemiological standards,” says Yuri Babenko. Despite the renovation of the premises, the windows let sound through. During the next pause, because of the closed windows, the selective obscenity of the loaders is once again heard. Their main peak of employment is at night. Then the red and blue boxes, at almost sub-zero temperatures, move from corner to corner along the broken concrete floor - all the work is controlled by the management through video cameras. While it is only getting dark, and the workers are joking and smoking, extinguishing cigarette butts on the broken asphalt and battered walls of the plant. With the exception of an ATM machine and a few social media banners, workers said

“The cost of Doctorskaya is comparable for all manufacturers,” Bashmatova says in the voice of a teacher, returning to the topic of pricing. “The cost reflects the cost of raw materials, the costs of the enterprise, the ability to negotiate mutually beneficial conditions with retailers and the vision of the price level of our line - we are focused on quality products, even if they buy less because of the price.”

Large industries, according to the Ramens, have a big HEAD start. “The feds earn their profits on turnover, they have four thousand tons of production capacity that needs to be occupied - here you can get at least two kopecks per kilogram. Their destiny is to work with wholesale, ”Bashmatova says with vigor. She says that small businesses work differently: “We earn from marginality (i.e., on small lots. - RP) on every kilogram of production.”

On the etiquettes of many sausages it is clearly visible - pork and poultry in the composition in half, manufacturers are trying to save on everything. Is the plant ready for such measures? The director explains that it is no longer profitable to make inexpensive offal: "Cheap chicken has disappeared from the market."

“The price tag for Russian pork fell to the level of Canadian”

“The situation has shown that it is still worth investing in the meat business,” Babenko remarks unexpectedly optimistic and smiles. “In any case, the consumption of meat products in the world will grow, which means that it is still profitable to increase our own production.” The director is confident that local raw materials will soon replace imported meat on the Russian market: “We will increase the pace, recently the country has reached the level of supply for poultry by almost 100%. He claims that it will take just five years to meet the 85% quota for pork and beef.

What is the attitude of the company towards the state regulation of the market? On the one hand, the director positively assesses Russia's entry into the WTO: “This is good, the more competition, the better for the market. As soon as we entered the WTO, prices collapsed. The price tag for Russian pork, for example, has fallen to the level of European and Canadian ones.” On the other hand, Yuri notes in a confident tone: “What happened now is big politics, but food sovereignty is extremely important for the country.” Subordinates agree in agreement: “Yes, yes, we need independence!”

The Russian Sort also believes that food sovereignty is necessary: ​​“What if God forbid us? And we need to eat! We are obliged to secure ourselves - we must produce everything ourselves, ”Elena Shilina says sternly, leaning forward. The Executive Director notes that Russia is nowpractically went self-sufficient in chicken, the pork issue was also closed, beef remains a problem: “The government should finally pay attention to cattle breeding!”

Did the enterprise feel such advertised state support? “I applied for subsidies to the Moscow Region government, a year ago I received 10 million subsidies in this way,” admits Tatyana Eremkina. “But it would be better if they gave places for trade.” She says with a hint of discontent that Ryazan, Tambov and Kaluga enterprises are invited to the weekend markets, but never from the Moscow region: “I wrote to the Moscow Department of the Consumer Market, gathered farmers from the Moscow Region, went to a meeting with the head of the Department of Trade Alexei Nemeryuk. But they just unsubscribed from us!”

“One of the real ways to help domestic agriculture is cheap loans,” says Eremkina. “For example, for 5 years at 5% per annum.” “If the state really wants to provide real assistance,” Shilina echoes the authorities, “then it is necessary to reduce the tax burden on the economy, simplify veterinary control for farms - a peasant needs a bunch of certificates for slaughter - everything is too bureaucratic. I will say this: the current sanctions can become a chance - if there are loans, then this is a sign that everything is fine, and if they are not given to farmers, then only words.