Government distributes undrawn beef import quotas

The distribution of unselected quotas between importers will be carried out according to applications accepted by the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation. Within the quota, the tariff rate is 15%, outside - 50%.

The preferential import mechanism for increasing the volume of beef on the domestic market is due to the fact that domestic production of cattle meat began to decline in 2022 and does not cover the needs of meat processors, although in the previous five years imports showed negative dynamics against the backdrop of growth in domestic production.

According to the Federal Center "Agroexport" under the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, which is illustrated by the graph provided by Kommersant, in 2017–2021 the volume of supplies of foreign beef decreased from 452.4 thousand to 287 thousand tons in physical terms and from $1.4 billion to a little more than $1 billion in monetary equivalent. The main share came from Belarus , Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay.

Last year, the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) approved the import of beef to Russia at a zero rate in the amount of 200 thousand tons. The appearance of cheap meat on the market led to a decrease in purchasing prices, after which domestic farmers practically stopped selling cattle to meat processing plants.

This year, the duty-free import quota was reduced to 100 thousand tons. It was expected that such a move would prevent prices from rising by 15–20%, maintain the profitability of domestic beef production and the investment attractiveness of beef cattle breeding in general. It will be possible to assess its effect only after analyzing the results of 2023. Based on the results of January–June, Rosstat recorded a slight increase in beef production - up to 1.1 million tons in live weight (+0.7% year-on-year).