Turkey production is expected to reach 252,000 tonnes in 2013 and 585,000 tonnes by 2020. In contrast, overall poultry production is only forecast to grow by 22%.
Consumption of turkey is also growing rapidly in the country, and is expected to increase by 7-8 times between now and 2020. In an interview with GlobalMeatNews.com Vadim Vannev, the general director of the company Eurodon, currently the largest producer of turkey meat in Russia, said that Russia could catch up with Europe in terms of turkey consumption.
“We believe that Russia in 2020 will reach the level of consumption that currently exists in Europe. That is, 5-6 kg per person per year. At the moment, turkey consumption in Russia stands at 800g per person per year. About five years ago, when we started, it was even less - about 300g per person per year,” he said.
However, he added that it was quite difficult to give a clear prediction exactly what would happen on the market in 8 years.
“Given that Russia has 142 million people, and the same number can be maintained for 2020, I assume that the volume of the turkey market in Russia will be about 500-600t a year. However, this is a very rough forecast. We can not know everything that will happen over these years,” he explained.
Vaneev said that the growth in the turkey market had increased competition, with dozens of new companies starting up in recent years. “When we started there were only three companies existing on the market. Now there are already 50,” he said.
However, he said that he was confident that Eurodon could maintain its market leading position. “We are the market leaders. Our strength is that we know the market. We have the strongest team in Europe. It would take years for our competitors to assemble a team with the same experience - it took us 10 years." he told GlobalMeatNews.com.