Chicken, which remains the most affordable type of meat, has been rising sharply in price since the beginning of summer, according to Rosstat data. In June, the price of “chilled frozen chickens” rose by 4.13% compared with May, and in July — by 7.87% compared with June; this became a record for the agency’s 24 years of available statistics.
In August, the pace of price growth slowed to 2.18% compared with July. On an annual basis, chicken became 16.05% more expensive and exceeded the overall inflation rate by 2.5 times, which Rosstat estimated at 6.35%.
According to AB-Center, chicken has become the fastest-rising type of meat. By comparison, in August beef became 15.5% more expensive year on year, turkey — by 15.1%, and pork — by 1.7%.
Deputy chairman of the board of the Rusprodsoyuz association Dmitry Leonov linked the trend to higher feed costs, energy resources, logistics, veterinary drugs, and wages in the industry. Timofey Mazurchuk, Candidate of Economic Sciences and expert at the International Academy of Technological Sciences, added that some popular antibiotics for poultry had also become more expensive, and the tax burden had increased: the profit tax was raised from 20% to 25%, and this year the VAT rate was increased to 22%.
Albina Koryagina, partner at the consulting company Neo, also pointed to rising prices for fuels and lubricants and noted that diesel fuel had become 24% more expensive over the year. Retailers recorded price increases after chicken production began to decline for the first time since 2021 — by 2.1%, or about 60,000 tons, in January–May.
Strategy Partners representative Artem Suvorov explained this by the decline in the profitability of poultry farms. In his assessment, enterprises faced higher taxes and increased expenses for feed, transport, production resources, and compliance with regulatory requirements.
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