The section Russian Meat presents an analysis of the situation in the mutton market. The recent years have seen a favourable situation emerge in Russia for the growth of small and medium-size sheep farms. For the first time in the past 13 years all categories of farms have been showing an upward trend in terms of the sheep and goat numbers.
The section World Meat describes the situation and forecasts on the global and specifically Australian mutton market. Virtually in all European countries modern-day sheep farming specializes in production of lamb, which accounts for up to 90% of the total value of the sector's output and more, 80% of which is generated through sales of meat-type lambs. Australia's current mutton and lamb market was pegged in 2005 at 656,000 tonnes, 45% of which is exported.
The year 2006 has been declared by the RF Agriculture Ministry to be the Year of Cow, with the national project "Agribusiness Development" featuring livestock farming as a priority area. Can production of cattle become a profitable business in Russia? Is there a future for meat-and-milk breeds? Does Russia need domestic cattle production? All this is covered in the section "Issue's Feature".
Last year the Miratorg Company announced a new line in its activities: to set up a hog farm of its own in the Belgorod region, to produce 1 mln. heads a year, and a large-capacity meat-processing plant. Why does a successful company need to start from scratch again in a new, albeit a related market, why undertake large-scale and risky changes? This is the subject of our discussion in the section "Personality" with the company's president Victor Linnik.
Recent developments in Russia’s meat market have been commented for us in the section "Expert Opinion" by Sergei Yushin, head of the executive committee of the National Meat Association.
The activities of an organization engaged in supervision of the biological safety of foods have been described in the section "Safety and Health" by Aleksandr Baranov, president of the Nation-Wide Association for Genetic Safety.
The increasing competition in the meat industry makes the meat producers and processors start eyeing special consumer groups such as the Muslims. Production of Halal meat is currently a totally new, still almost empty segment of the market. This is covered in the section "Business Technologies". Preparing sausages to unorthodox recipes requires extensive and detailed expertise. There being a variety of equipment available makes it possible for the customers to choose a machine that it best for them. More in the section "Business Technologies".
National Meat Association, trade information web portal eMeatTradingSystem, meat trade journal MYASO.com announce an online competition MISS MEAT WORLD 2006 amongst representatives of the meat market!!! The purpose of the competition is to demonstrate the openness of the meat market, promote business ties, establish friendly relations between representatives of various companies, and project a positive image of the sector as a whole. More in the section "Contest".
The 13th International exhibition of foods and raw materials for their production, Prodexpo 2006, was held in Moscow between 13 and 17 February 2006. For the first time, the exhibition hosted an all-Russian trade forum, "Strategic Challenges in Russia's Retailing of the 21st Century". The GMCS company gave a workshop entitled "Warehouse Resource Management: Keeping Up with the Times!" For more details about the events see the section "Reportage".
Russia starts to set up a gene bank of special hogs. The chief cultivated trait of such pigs is their athletic abilities. More in the section "Entertainment".