Russia ranks third in the world in the production of turkey meat

Russia became the third largest producer of turkey meat in the world after the United States and Germany and ranked second in Europe, producing 400,000 tons of turkey in all categories of farms in 2021, according to updated data from the consulting agency Agrifood Strategies.

Over the past five years, Russian turkey breeders have risen in the ranking from seventh to third place in the world, almost doubling their output from 226,470 to 400,030 tons and overtaking Poland, Italy, France - the leading producers of turkey meat in Europe.

Among all turkey producers in the world, Russia once again showed a record growth rate (21.7% in 2021), which makes it stand out against the backdrop of a decrease in volumes among a significant part of the rating participants.

An analysis of statistics from the EU, US, Brazil and Canada, as well as industry data collected by Agrifood Strategies, shows that last year only Spain showed a slight inertial growth of 3.3%, while Germany remained at the level of the previous year, while maintaining its leadership in Europe at the level of 441,374 tons. At the same time, the UK and France - where industrial turkey farming comes from - marked the year with a record drop in markets of almost 20% and 10%, respectively.

Despite the objective difficulties faced by the entire livestock sector in Russia last year, turkey farming not only finally formed as a separate industry, but also made it possible to maintain the supply on the domestic poultry meat market at the level of 2020, compensating for the reduction in chicken production.

The achievements of Russian turkey breeders have become possible thanks to significant investments in the industry by large, medium and small producers, the ever-growing popularity of turkey among Russian consumers as a “healthy” type of meat, as well as the expansion of interaction between suppliers and retail chains and wholesale buyers.

It should be noted that the formation of the industry was marked by the creation in May last year of the National Association of Turkey Producers (NAPI), which united more than 80% of domestic turkey breeding companies and dozens of companies supplying technologies, equipment, feed ingredients, veterinary drugs, as well as peasant farms.