Russians are increasingly buying cheaper meat due to rising prices
In Russia, consumers are cutting back on meat spending and switching to more affordable products. Against the backdrop of rising prices for beef and pork, demand for turkey and chicken has increased significantly.
According to NTech, in the first half of the year, turkey sales increased by 17% in physical volume—to 42,000 metric tons—and by 22% in monetary terms. At the same time, sales of beef steaks fell by 7.5%, while pork sales dropped by as much as 24%.
Chicken, which remains the cheapest of the major meat types, also saw a rise in demand—by 5.2%, to 325,300 metric tons. Industry representatives attribute this to a shift in consumer spending away from more expensive meat categories.
Price was one of the contributing factors. Over the past six months, the price of beef per kilogram has risen by an average of 12% and is now about 1.5 times more expensive than turkey. Since the start of the full-scale war, the price of beef has risen by 79%, according to Rosstat.
Against this backdrop, beef consumption in Russia has fallen to a historic low of 1.859 million metric tons. Compared to the peak in 2008, demand has fallen by about one-third, or 900,000 metric tons per year.
Despite Rosstat’s claims of rising real incomes, Russians are increasingly cutting back even on basic food items. In the first half of the year, the number of purchases at neighborhood stores decreased by 10%, and at specialty grocery stores, by 5%.
Source: The Moscow Times
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has not yet made a decision regarding his participation in the G20 summit and, consequently, regarding a meeting with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
As a reminder, Zelenskyy effectively proposed to the Kremlin leader that they hold a face-to-face meeting specifically during the G20 summit in December 2026.
U.S. President Donald Trump has not yet decided whether to invite Russia to the G20 summit, which will take place on December 14–15, 2026, in Miami.
