Russia boosts poultry exports with soft loans for broilers and eggs
The Russian Agricultural Ministry has shared plans to issue soft loans with subsidised interest rates for broiler meat and egg producers. One of the initiative’s key focuses is to fuel export growth, primarily to the Middle East and China.
Russia will include broiler meat and egg production on the list of industries eligible for state aid, Roman Nekrasov, the deputy Russian Agricultural Minister, outlined during an industry meeting in Tatarstan. Under the programme, the government plans to provide aid equal to 70% of the Russian Central Bank’s key interest rate, currently set at 15.5%.
Soft loans with interest rates subsidised by the state have historically been one of the key drivers of the Russian livestock industry growth. The programme, under which farmers could borrow cheap money to invest in their operations, has been dramatically downsized over the last several years, as Russia has met the targets of its food security doctrine.
Currently, soft funding is only issued for dairy farming, seasonal fieldwork, greenhouse crop production, and a few other types of agricultural operations.
Special terms, such as new broiler breeding facilities
However, Nekrasov clarified that eligibility for the new funding will depend on specific investment and production criteria, such as building breeding facilities for broiler producers and maintaining at least 30% highly processed products in egg production.
Specifically, in the broiler meat segment, the necessary condition will be that poultry producers must invest in building breeding facilities. In the egg segment, the main requirement will be that the share of highly processed products must be at least 30% of their total production.
“This is to avoid overheating the [domestic] market and to be able to [increase] export of the products,” Nekrasov said. According to local analysts, the condition will make the largest poultry farms the primary recipients of state aid in the broiler meat segment.
The Ministry began accepting applications for state aid on 10 February, Nekrasov said, without providing any details about the programme’s funding or any additional details.
Record for Russian poultry exports
In 2025, Russia set a new record in poultry exports, delivering 455,400 tonnes to foreign markets, 6.4% up from the previous year, according to the Russian Union of Poultry Producers.
China remains the key market for Russian poultry, accounting for 34% of exports (155,000 tonnes). Saudi Arabia ranks second on the list of the largest sales markets with 76,800 tonnes purchased last year.
In 2025, Agroexport, a Russian government agency that facilitates exports, released a plan to boost Russian poultry exports by 64% to US$1.5 billion by 2030.
