Poultry farm “Sinyavinskaya” faced a shortage of 25-30% of the staff

The shortage of workers, exacerbated by the outflow of migrants after a significant depreciation of the ruble, has a negative impact on large agricultural enterprises. The Sinyavinskaya poultry farm, which ranks first in the production of eggs, notified retailers about the risks of delays in shipments and the cancellation of some orders due to a shortage of staff by 25-30%. The Ministry of Agriculture claims that they constantly monitor the provision of the industry with labor resources.

The main producer of food eggs in Russia, the Sinyavinskaya poultry farm, warned retailers about the risks of changing the shipment schedule and canceling part of the agreed orders due to a shortage of personnel. Kommersant has a copy of the company’s letter to partners dated August 15.

As noted in the appeal, due to the massive outflow of personnel, mainly migrants, the manufacturer lacks 25-30% of workers, which does not allow forming full-fledged shifts for the production of finished products. Sinyavinskaya asks to recognize the situation as force majeure and not to impose fines for transferring deliveries or short deliveries from August 1. The Kommersant company did not respond. X5 Group, Magnit, Lenta and Metro did not provide any comments. In Vkusvill they say that they do not work with Sinyavinskaya, and they have not received such letters from their suppliers.

According to Rosptitsesoyuz, in 2022 Sinyavinskaya produced more than 1.6 billion food eggs, occupying 5% of the market in physical terms. The closest competitors, Roscar and Volzhanin, for comparison, produced 1.3 billion eggs each. The revenue of Sinyavinskaya Poultry Farm JSC in 2022 increased by 10.5%, to 10.24 billion rubles, net profit amounted to 912.12 million rubles.

The general director of Roscar, Roman Smirnov, confirms that due to the weakening of the ruble, there was a shortage of foreign workers.

But in the company, he claims, to solve the problem, salaries are indexed, employees from other localities are involved, they are provided with housing and insurance.

In Rosptitsesoyuz, noting the problem with personnel in most industries, they do not predict a decrease in production volumes at poultry farms due to a shortage of workers.

General Director of the National Union of Beef Producers Roman Kostyuk notes that in general, in the agricultural industry, there is a noticeable shortage, primarily of machine operators, dividers, and there is also an outflow of migrant workers. President of Agrifood Strategies Albert Davleev says that large processors are now short of 10-25% of workers, and the problem with technical staff has recently worsened.

But, according to the expert, the share of migrants in the agricultural industry is no more than 10-15%. Mr. Davleev connects the lack of labor force mainly with internal migration, as well as with the seasonal factor, when many workers leave for their subsidiary farms, and return to their jobs only by autumn. The seasonal shortage of workers in the agricultural industry was in previous years, and this year the problem is exacerbated by the outflow of migrants due to the weakening of the ruble, says Oleg Shenderyuk, director of Yakov and Partners.

Elena Artemyeva, director of analytics and data science at the Rabota.ru service, says that the number of vacancies in the agricultural industry in July 2023 increased by 18% year-on-year, and active resumes – by only 2%, which indicates an acute shortage of personnel.

As the expert notes, the growing popularity of part-time employment, as well as demographic problems, contribute to the shortage: a large adult generation is retiring, and young workers cannot completely fill vacancies.

The Ministry of Agriculture told Kommersant that they are constantly monitoring the provision of industry enterprises with labor and material and technical resources, and poultry farming shows a steady growth in the production of meat and eggs.

Ekaterina Rakitina; Konstantin Kurkin, St. Petersburg