Manufacturers’ selling prices for chicken meat (carcass) began to decline in Russia as a whole, the head of the National Union of Poultry Farmers Sergei Lakhtyukhov told Izvestia. Since the beginning of 2021, the cost of products from manufacturers has been growing, but at the beginning of March the situation has changed. According to him, the demand for products in retail chains began to decline during Lent. This led to the fact that in the second half of April, selling prices won back more than a third of the growth since the beginning of the year.
Galina Bobyleva, general director of the Russian Poultry Union, confirmed to Izvestia that prices for chicken meat have stabilized and are now falling. She found it difficult to clarify how the cost of the carcass rose from January to March. In February, its price increased by 6% compared to January, she said earlier.
The press service of the Ministry of Agriculture told Izvestia that over the past 30 days (by April 14), producer prices for poultry carcasses increased by 1.4%. The demand for poultry products grew for a number of reasons. First, since the end of 2020, its supply has been reduced due to outbreaks of bird flu. Secondly, the cost of chicken meat production increased. But now the situation is changing: production volumes are being restored, and prices are starting to decline. So, according to the Ministry of Agriculture on April 14, the cost of chicken meat (in carcasses) amounted to 124.3 rubles per 1 kg, having decreased by 0.3% over the week.
Although on store shelves, the new dynamics have not yet found reflection. The press service of Rosstat told Izvestia that as of April 12, the cost of chicken meat (chilled chickens) in retail increased since the beginning of the year by 14.6% and amounted to 165.7 rubles per 1 kg. At the same time, the dynamics of growth in the case of meat really began to slow down. For example, the price of chilled chicken on the shelf increased by only 0.35% by April 5 compared to March, while in March by February it increased by 7.2%.
Read more in the exclusive material from Izvestia:
Chickens in a hurry: producer prices for poultry meat went down