Russian pig industry sets sights on India

During an industry conference in New Delhi, head of the export department of pig company AgroEko Pavel Yudin said that Russian pig companies are ready export to the Indian market. In November 2023, India resumed Russian pork imports which were suspended in 2020. Yudin said that the company has struck an agreement with several local customers to deliver 300 tonnes of pork per month to the country.

Low demand

Russian meat industry officials, however, remain sceptical about export prospects in the new direction. “In India, pork production and pig farming are at a fairly low technological level,” sais Sergey Yushin, executive director of the Russian National Meat Association to news outlet Msk1. “The majority of the population associates pork with unclean meat because they see animals running through the jungle and eating in garbage dumps. Accordingly, the per capita pork consumption in India is very low.”

Growth in the cards

However, in the next few years, the Indian per capita pork consumption is expected to grow. Yushin: “Of course, attitudes towards this type of meat will gradually change as Indians become richer and more familiar with meat obtained from modern industrial farms and enterprises. This will, of course, stimulate [a growth of] demand.”

Yuri Kovalev, general director of the Russian Union of Pork Producers, told Agroinvestor that India is not a priority market for Russia at the moment. “There was one test delivery there a few months ago. So far, none of the major suppliers have launched exports there,” Kovalev said.

Record export

Agroexport, a Russian government agency facilitating agricultural exports, calculated that Russian farmers exported 255,000 tonnes of pork and by-products in 2023, 66% more than in the previous year.

In value terms, exports soared by 55%. Agroexport expects Russian 2024 pork exports to range between 255,000 and 300,000 tonnes, though the agency has not specified the share of each particular market.

No impact on domestic prices

The opening of the Indian market is not expected to impact prices on the Russian pork market in the foreseeable future.

“I am far from thinking that Russia will carry out mass supplies to India. Accordingly, this will not affect prices in any way. In any case, the more opportunities there are in the international market, the more pork we will produce overall. Export supplies will always help to avoid unwanted price increases within the country during increased demand,” Yushin added.