The Ministry of Agriculture noticed a deficit of eggs and chicken

According to representatives of the department, the development of the poultry industry in Russia is quite dynamic, however, prices for the products of domestic poultry farms continue to grow rapidly.

Against the background of declining incomes, consumers began to abandon expensive types of meat and switch to more budgetary animal protein - chicken and eggs. However, prices for popular products were not stabilized.

In January and February of this year, Rosstat recorded an increase in prices for eggs by 3.3%, and for chilled and frozen chicken meat - 8.1%. At the same time, headline inflation reached a level of 5.6% unprecedented since the end of 2016.

After reports of a sharp rise in prices for poultry products, the FAS intervened in the situation, which began checking producers.

“What is happening on the market is conditioned, on the one hand, by an increase in the consumption of poultry meat and eggs as the most accessible sources of animal protein, and on the other hand, by a slight decrease in production against the background of a worsening episodic situation”, - reports finanz.ru.

Amid periodic outbreaks of avian influenza in Europe, the supply of hatching eggs from the EU to domestic broiler poultry farms fell.

“Taking into account the current situation, the import of hatching eggs was redistributed to other countries. At the same time, domestic needs are met by 80% at the expense of their own production, and 20% at the expense of imports”, - the Ministry of Agriculture said.

To reduce the industry's dependence on imports in Russia, they intend to introduce incentives for the development of local production: investors will be compensated for capital investments in the construction and modernization of facilities for the production of hatching eggs from 2022. In addition, the authorities intend to increase the maximum limit on preferential loans to producers of chicken and eggs by one and a half times - up to 1.5 billion rubles per borrower. Those poultry farms that have suffered from outbreaks of bird flu will be extended preferential investment loans up to 12 years. In addition to the above measures, officials are considering the payment of compensation to poultry farmers for part of the costs per 1 kilogram of products produced and sold, as is done for dairy producers.

According to forecasts of the Ministry of Agriculture, the production of poultry and eggs should recover by May this year. An increase in production volumes should lead to price stabilization.

Earlier, consumers in a number of Russian regions complained that on the eve of the New Year holidays and during the winter holidays, chicken eggs disappeared from the shelves of grocery stores. And lots of new deliveries came at noticeably higher prices.