Exports of live animals from Russia increased 1.5 times in six months

From January to June 2025, Russia supplied more than $73 million worth of live animals to foreign markets. Compared to the same period last year, export revenue increased by 54%, the press service of the federal center Agroexport told Izvestia.

Cattle exports increased 2.1 times compared to the first half of 2024, reaching $32 million. Uzbekistan is the largest buyer of domestic cattle this year, with a 33% share in the total value of supplies. Compared to January–June 2024, cattle sales to the Central Asian country increased 22-fold. Azerbaijan is in second place with a share of 24%, and Kazakhstan is in third (14%).

Russian shipments of live pigs abroad increased by 34%, to $20 million. Importers of Russian pigs are Georgia, which accounts for about 74% of the total value, as well as Armenia (26%). Exports of live poultry — chickens, turkeys, ducks and geese — totaled $12 million in January–June, which is 3% less than in 2024 for the same period. The main volume is accounted for by day-old chickens. The key importers of Russian live poultry are Kazakhstan with a share of 31%, Azerbaijan (30%) and Belarus (24%).

In addition, in the first half of the year, Russia exported live sheep for $5 million, three times more than in January–June 2024. The main supply routes are Azerbaijan (39% of the total value), Lebanon (23%) and Uzbekistan (22%).

"Although Russia is not a major exporter of live animals, nevertheless, over the past three years there has been a steady increase in foreign supplies. According to our estimates, there is a good potential for further development of exports of breeding animals, however, it is necessary to work out a number of issues, primarily related to the awareness of producers and solving logistical problems, as well as to continue work on opening markets in friendly countries," Ilya Ilyushin, head of the federal Center for Agroexport, explained to Izvestia.

When increasing the production and export of livestock products, live cattle is one of the elements of trade development, especially with neighboring countries, says Sergey Yushin, head of the National Meat Association.

"There are states that prefer to buy live commercial cattle. This is due to various factors, in particular, the availability of cheap labor and the peculiarities of slaughter and butchering. So, Iran buys live meat from Russia — the reason is that they want to have more chilled meat, butchered according to their own specifications and in accordance with Halal standards, which they want to independently control," Yushin said.

In addition, the supply of breeding cattle plays an important role in world trade.

"For example, Russia is actively developing breeding work in pig breeding and has long been independent of the import of F1 pigs. Today, when genetic laboratories are being created in the country, breeding work is underway and there is really very high-quality breeding cattle, we can offer it to other countries developing their own livestock production," Yushin drew attention.

He recalled that the development of breeding and genetics is one of the priorities of the Russian Ministry of Agriculture, included in the national project "Technological food security".

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Earlier, on June 23, the press service of the Agroexport federal center reported that in the first five months of 2025, Russian supplies of pork and offal to world markets amounted to about 130 thousand tons worth more than $311 million. Compared to the same period last year, exports increased 1.6 times in physical terms and 1.8 times in value.

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