Retailers called the consequences of the ban on meat imports: it’s time to stock up on stew

The senator proposed to increase the state reserve of canned meat

Senator from the Belgorod region Yevgeny Savchenko, the long-term head of the region, proposed to review the food security policy in relation to meat. In particular, the politician insists on creating an additional state reserve of canned meat, as well as stopping the import of meat even from friendly countries. To what consequences it will lead, representatives of retail trade predict.

Savchenko’s proposal falls into two parts. The first is the creation of a state reserve of canned meat (stewed meat), “extremely necessary in the current situation.” The senator justifies it also by the need to find a market for the excess production of Russian pork and poultry meat. And also to load meat-packing plants at full capacity.

According to Yevgeny Savchenko, this step should become “an effective anti-inflationary intervention tool for price regulation.”

The senator’s second proposal is to completely ban the import of meat into Russia, even from friendly countries (for example, South America). This, according to the politician, is necessary so that Russian producers do not suffer from competition.

Thus, both proposals make it possible to provide additional demand for Russian livestock complexes. However, from the point of view of consumers, they will launch completely different processes, representatives of the retail trade explain.

– For manufacturers, the initiative can be good, – representatives of the federal retail network explained to MK. – But the demand for meat and meat products in stores is driven by other factors. This is the solvency of the population, first of all. In particular, in our network, fresh meat, like fish, is not available in all stores – these departments, if you do not take Moscow and the Moscow Region, are not even in every regional center. Measures to ban the import of meat are likely to lead to a further increase in its price, so that fresh meat can only be found at the level of regional centers.

The other network did not describe the initiative in any way, but said that the consumption of meat, including pork and chicken meat, tends to decrease not because of import pressure, but for other reasons.

– As for the stew as a long-term storage product, the demand for it is not too big, but stable, – the commodity expert said. – It may be possible to reposition this product within a few years, but now it is considered niche, intended for field conditions or stockpiling.

Recall that a similar situation with the availability of fresh meat existed in the Soviet years: most often in villages and small towns, fresh meat was not sold, stewed meat was (not always) available. However, in Soviet times, many more owners in the private sector raised piglets and other animals for meat – now this is accompanied by a lot more regulatory restrictions. Therefore, today the situation threatens to turn into a much greater shortage of meat than before.