The largest Russian meat producer, Cherkizovo Group, is negotiating with Chinese companies on a joint supply of pork to China.
Cherkizovo expects to expand its activities in Asia and eliminate the deficit in the world's largest market.
As the general director of Cherkizovo Sergey Mikhailov said, the restoration of pork production will not be easy. Leading Russian producers of pork meat were able to cope with outbreaks of ASF and are aware of methods to combat it.
Since 2018, ASF halved the 400 millionth flock of pigs in China, which led to an increase in imports of pork, beef and chicken, as domestic prices jumped.
According to Mikhailov, negotiations on the creation of a joint venture for the production and export of pork in Russia or China, which may contain 5-10 million heads of pigs, have just begun. He did not disclose who might be among the potential partners.
According to Mikhailov, the cost of pork production is lower or comparable with the United States and Brazil due to cheap agricultural land, animal feed and electricity in the country.
Russia has not exported pork to China because it deals with its own outbreaks of the swine virus, although there was talk of the start of trade, and China began importing Russian poultry this year.
“Russia is a new player in the meat market,” Mikhailov said. “This is unusual for many people and is different from what happened in past years. Everyone is used to being one of the largest importers of meat. ”