Since the beginning of 2021, Russia’s sausage exports have risen by 33% from last year to 33,100 tonnes, a RusAg report says. Over the period under review, domestic meat suppliers consolidated their presence on the key foreign markets (the former USSR countries), added Benin, Liberia and Ghana in West Africa to the list of their new export destinations and increased exports in kind to the Far East and Southeast Asia almost fivefold. RusAg experts interpret growth in African and Asian exports as a general diversification trend by domestic meat and fish producers and estimate that sausage exports for the whole year will exceed 55,000 tonnes.
‘Similar culinary preferences, consumption culture and low-cost logistics all combine to make the markets of the former USSR strategically important and lucrative for Russian sausage makers. They don’t have to customize their product range specifically for these countries and can easily redirect there any items that are redundant for the Russian market. Over the last year, exports to the former USSR countries jumped 32%, which shows that Russian companies are competing fairly successfully,’ says Andrei Dalnov, Head of the RusAg Centre for Industry Expertise.
The primary foreign market for Russian sausage is Kazakhstan (+27% year on year to 22,100 tonnes).
Next comes Ukraine (+41% over the year to 5,500 tonnes), followed by Azerbaijan (+21% to 2,900 tonnes). A breakthrough was made by Uzbekistan ramping up its imports 18 times to 200 tonnes, although these numbers can only be viewed as the first step.
It is noteworthy that despite growth in exports to the key consumers, their share in the total exports is gradually falling as Russian meat processors are slowly gaining foothold on distant markets and learning how to use complex and expensive logistics to export to Asia and Africa.
Exports to the Far East are growing as well (up 5 times to 151 tonnes). They do not compare even with Uzbekistan’s imports, but the Centre for Industry Expertise thinks the trend is auspicious.
Of these 151 tonnes, 113 were shipped to China while the rest went to Japan, Mongolia, Vietnam, and Malaysia. In 2021 Russian suppliers penetrated as many as three new markets – in Benin (31 tonnes), Liberia (9 tonnes), and Ghana (6 tonnes).
‘Foothold gained in East and Southeast Asia and the advance into Africa are a sign of progress in ultra-processing, because local taste preferences there are very different from post-Soviet markets. Russian producers, if they want to be competitive, have to explore new production technologies and recipes. That’s where the challenge lies, but our forecast is positive. As for West Africa, we can see that sausage makers believe in this market, as do fish producers who discovered it for themselves in 2021. Local residents associated with Russia through business, trade and so on are also making an impact that helps promote Russian exports and introduce new products and taste combinations. For example, in the case of Vietnam it was dry-cured sausage, an exotic product for that country,’ adds Mr Dalnov.
The Centre for Industry Expertise believes that, as a long-term objective, Russian sausage importers have to maintain and consolidate their positions in post-Soviet countries that will remain their key consumers. They have to further diversify by discovering new markets and increasing sales. The Far East, Southeast Asia and Africa are seen as a new income source that will be driving the development of new ultra-processed products and, consequently, of the entire sector in Russia.