Русский
Russian pig farmers had a significant boost in 2024, when China, the world’s largest importer of pork, began accepting Russian pork from April. That has resulted in expectations that 2025 will be a record-breaking year in Russian pork meat exports.
Yury Kovalev, the CEO of the National Union of Pig Breeders stated that Russia exported 300,000 tonnes of pork in 2024, amounting to about 6% of the country’s total production, stating that “This year (2025) we plan to increase exports by about another 15%-20%. It will be about 350,000 tonnes. The target by 2030 is 500,000-550,000 tonnes. In the second half of last year, we shipped 40,000 tonnes to the Chinese market. I think it would be a great success if we increase by another 50% this year and can ship about 60,000-70,000 tonnes.”
Asked about the prospects of increasing the number of Russian pork suppliers to the China, as only three companies are currently certified, he said Russian plant and animal health watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor is working towards expanding this with their Chinese counterparts.
Kovalev said “There are a number of companies that are now preparing for accreditation for the Chinese market. Our product is competitive in both quality and price. The first results of deliveries last year have demonstrated this.”
Kovalev recalled that Russia achieved virtually 100% self-sufficiency for pork by the start of the 2020s. “Today our domestic pork prices, particularly in foreign currency terms, are among the lowest in the world, primarily because we created our own industry. And in 2020 we began to implement an export-oriented strategy.”
Further Reading
Russian Pork Exports Rooting For A 2025 Increase, With China A Key Market
