Trade House Cherkizovo, one of the largest chicken meat producers, notified its partners about the increase in wholesale prices for chicken meat (Fontanka has a copy of the letter addressed to one of the St. Petersburg chains).
In it, the company reports that from June 1, 2023, products under the Cherkizovo trademarks and products under the chains’ own brands in the chicken category will increase by a weighted average of 5.5%.
“This step was caused by the withdrawal from the Russian market of a number of manufacturers of equipment and spare parts for slaughter and processing of poultry, as a result of a decrease in availability and an increase in prices for equipment and its components, for a number of positions up to two times,” explains Cherkizovo.
In addition, there was an increase in prices for transport services (up to 6%) and packaging materials up to 20%. Also, poultry farms are experiencing a shortage of personnel and are forced to raise salaries. Costs for production personnel at the beginning of 2023 increased by about 17% compared to the same period last year, they say in Cherkizovo, expecting further growth.
The current increase covers only part of the cost increase. “The company is still looking for an opportunity to cover the rest of the cost growth at the expense of internal reserves,” Cherkizovo notes.
Earlier, Fontanka reported that during April, the Severnaya poultry farm raised prices for its products by 10-20%, retailers also reported about the rise in price of stock poultry. In Severnaya itself, the rise in prices was explained by difficulties in servicing imported equipment, as well as by an increase in the cost of logistics services, energy carriers, vaccines, hatching eggs, etc.
