The country is also importing large quantities of the drugs, with 86.5% of the antibiotics used in animal feed coming from abroad. It is estimated that the country imports around US$42.885m of feed antibiotics every year, with the value of the market rising by nine times over the last six years.
Currently, the biggest supplier of feed antibiotics to Russian market are CEVA Group, Invesa Group, KRKA DD, Pfizer Animal Health.
The total market volume of in-feed antibiotics in Russia is currently estimated at 326,800kg. Around 23% of these are used for the treatment and prevention of disease, with 19% used as growth promoters, 36% as anti-parasitic drugs and 22% as a general preventive tool.
With the Russian accession in the World Trade Organization (WTO), it is predicted that the volume of in-feed antibiotics used by the country will continue to rise by two to three times per year.
According to official statistics, Russia produced 47,400kg of antibiotics for animal feed last year, which is up from 13,900kg the year before. In the first quarter of 2012 alone, it produced 8,500kg of feed antibiotics, which is a 46.6% increase on the same period last year.
