Meat semi-finished product output in Kuban increased by over 10% in a year.

According to data, Kuban remains one of the country’s key food centers. At the same time, growth is noted in the processing segment, while a decline is seen in a number of basic raw material positions.

For instance, the production of beef, pork, lamb, and other meats over 11 months amounted to 96.5 thousand tons. This is almost 14% lower than the previous year’s level. This indicates the growing costs faced by the livestock industry.

The situation in poultry farming is more stable — the production of chilled poultry meat reached 78.3 thousand tons. The industry has essentially maintained its volumes.

Meanwhile, the meat semi-finished products industry demonstrated noticeable growth. The output of these products for the year increased to 112.3 thousand tons. This is 10% more than the year before.

The production of cooked sausage products also grew — 23.1 thousand tons were produced over the year.

Growth is also observed in the fish processing and canned goods segment. From January through November of the past year, 22.4 thousand tons of processed and canned fish were produced. This is almost 25% more than the year before.

In the processing of vegetables and fruits, the situation is also developing in favor of finished products. The production of canned vegetables and mushrooms exceeded 365 million conditional cans, showing growth of over 10%. However, it is noted that juice production decreased — to 242 million conditional cans. This is almost 17% less than the previous year’s level.

The production of vegetable oils decreased. Over the past year, 993.5 thousand tons of unrefined oils and 298 thousand tons of refined oils were produced.

The production of drinking milk amounted to 359.8 thousand tons. This is approximately 5% lower than the previous year’s level. A similar trend is seen for butter and fermented milk products. However, cheese production increased by over 20%. 20.8 thousand tons were produced.

It was noted that the shift towards processing is not a crisis, but a sustainable trend.

“The consumer is under pressure from inflation, while incomes are not growing at comparable rates. As a result, demand shifts towards more affordable ready-made and semi-finished products. Often their price rises more slowly due to hidden mechanisms like reducing weight or changing composition. For businesses, processing is economically more attractive.”

In this view, the transition to processing and the reduction of own production could become a serious problem in the future.

“The smaller the raw material base within the region, the higher the dependence on supplies and logistics. For now, this is not a threat to food security, but it is a signal that cannot be ignored.”