Russian turkey and duck meat renaissance

In recent years, unconventional poultry meat production in Russia has been on a roller coaster. Major turkey producer, Eurodon, rolled out plans in 2017 to invest 78 billion rubles (US$ 1.3 billion) to expand production capacity in Rostov Oblast in southern Russia. Meanwhile, Eurodon’s subsidiary, Donstar, upped duck production. As Vadim Vaneev, general manager of Eurodon explains, both segments of the Russian poultry market looked extremely promising, as Russian turkey and duck consumption per capita was far below the level that it had been in the past. Vaneev recalled that in Soviet times virtually every household had an utyatnitsa – a traditional pan specially designed for roasting duck. Eurodon hoped that it could revive the state-owned collective farms that were destroyed or decommissioned in the 1990s and believed that if production was there, demand would follow. However, those hopes failed to materialise. Both Evrodon and Donstar accumulated huge debt over the years and ...