STRATEGY ▶▶▶
Russian turkey and duck meat renaissance
BY VLADISLAV VOROTNIKOV I
n recent years unconventional poultry meat production in Russia has been on a roller coaster. Major turkey producer Eurodon rolled out plans in 2017 to invest 78 billion rubles (US$ 1.3 billion) in expanding its production capacity in
Rostov Oblast in southern Russia. At the same time, Eurodon’s subsidiary, Donstar, upped its duck production. As Vadim Vaneev, general manager of Eurodon explains, both segments of the Russian poultry market looked extremely promising, as Russian turkey and duck consumption per capita was far be- low the level that it had been in the past. Vaneev recalled that in Soviet times virtually every household had an utyatnitsa – a traditional pan specially designed for roasting duck. Eurodon hoped that it could revive the state-owned collec- tive farms that were destroyed or decommissioned in the 1990s and believed that if production was there, demand would follow. However, those hopes failed to materialise. Both Evrodon and Donstar accumulated huge debts over the years and eventually went bankrupt. Nevertheless, there are signs that Eurodon’s owners were not entirely wrong at the time, as turkey and duck meat started to become more popular in 2020-2021.
New era of turkey production Russia’s domestic demand for unconventional meat proved to be strong in 2020, despite the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2020, turkey meat production grew to 330,000 tonnes, 20.7% more than in 2019, the Russian consulting firm Agrifood Strategies has estimated. The total revenue of commercial turkey grow- ers exceeded 50 billion rubles (US$ 700 million). The consult- ing firm expects to see further growth to 550,000 tonnes in 2025 and 600,000 tonnes in 2030. “In the turkey meat market, the Russian consumer’s pur- chasing power and the potential for the development of distribution channels will have a major impact,” says Sergey Lakhtyukhov, director-general of the Russian Union of Poultry Producers. He notes that growth potential in the turkey mar- ket is far from exhausted. “Domestic turkey consumption is just over two kilos per person which is half that of European consumption and a factor three lower than in the United States, so the potential is there,” Lakhtyukhov adds. Current investment plans support the bright outlook. Almost
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As broiler meat production in Russia sees the strongest decline in decades, investors are flocking to other poultry meat segments. Local analysts predict that turkey, duck and quail meat will drive growth in the Russian poultry industry in the years to come.
all the top market players have laid out plans to launch new or expand existing production facilities. Even former Eurodon farms are being bought up and restocked. The overall growth of the top five Russian turkey companies in 2020 exceeded 48,000 tonnes, while their share remained at the previous year’s level of 79%. Agrifood Strategies notes that such con- sistent and proportional growth of large federal producers and smaller-scale regional projects indicates that the market is still not saturated and is set to grow further. According to the GFK-Rus consulting firm, in the period January-Septem- ber 2020, consumers in all social groups continued to ‘switch’ to turkey from almost all categories of protein products, ex- cept eggs and lamb. This includes beef and veal, chicken, pork, fish and seafood. Even in the midst of a pandemic, growth in demand was seen.
Russian compa- ny Damate re- cently restarted the country’s biggest duck meat processing plant in Rostov Oblast.
PHOTO: DAMATE
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