Russia faces chicken meat shortage amid worsening food crisis
After the egg crisis, Russia is now experiencing a shortage of chicken meat. Several Russian regions are facing severe shortage of chicken meat.
Russian media insist that the disruption is due to weather conditions, while Denis Pushilin, the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, warns of a "cartel conspiracy”.
X5 Group, a major retail company in Russia, claims that chicken supply disruptions are allegedly caused by adverse weather conditions.
"In the first few days of January, some Russian regions experienced delivery delays due to severe snowfall or frosts," the company stated. It promised to resolve the issue shortly.
Residents of Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Samara, Sverdlovsk region, and other parts of the country are meanwhile reporting the disappearance of chicken from store shelves.
The issue with eggs in Russia, which have reached record prices, has yet to be resolved. The Russian authorities attempted to reduce prices by importing from Turkey and Belarus; however, these measures have not yielded results so far.
Experts believe that the egg and chicken crises are a result of the war and the collapse of Russian industry. Notably, Russian blogger Anatoliy Nesmian (El Murid) has discussed this.
He pointed out that up to 15% of all chicken meat in Russia is produced in the Belgorod region, which has been affected by military action recently. A likely decrease in production volumes may have led to the crisis in the European part of Russia.
If this is indeed the cause, Russians should also brace for a shortage of pork meat, as the Belgorod region is home to significant pig farming operations.
Once again, one must marvel at the "wisdom" of the Russian leadership, which organized a military operation near a key region for producing the most demanded types of inexpensive animal protein and succeeded in creating a state of permanent military threat there. Not everyone is given such breadth of thought, the Russian expert wrote.