Russians have begun to buy less meat, least of all beef. Customers are buying smaller pieces of meat, and shopping for this product less often overall.
Between July 2018 and June 2019, Russians bought 4.3% less meat than the year before. Beef sales dropped the most, by 7%, according to the Gfk research company. While meat sales are declining in physical terms (by 4.3%), people are not spending less money on it, because of the rising prices and inflation; on the contrary, the amount of money they spent over this period increased by 1.4% year-on-year.
Russians are buying less beef, as well as other types of meat. Also during this period, the prices of all types of meat increased by at least 3%. Poultry showed the highest growth at 12%; as a result, the sales of this product decreased by 5%.
Although the number of meat buyers in Russia remained the same, they began shopping for it less often. Some analysts believe the decline in meat consumption is also influenced by the growth of ready-made food servers.