dairy industry,
Import substitution
Import substitution in dairy industry of Russia has not happened
During the VII Summer Dairy Summit, the Director of the Dairy Market Research Center (DIA), Mikhail Mishchenko, noted that today there is a number of question the dairy industry of the Russian Federation has to answer. One of the key question is the one of export and its necessity.
«Import substitution in the dairy industry of Russian Federetion has not happened. In 2013, the difference between the volume of produced and processed milk was 3.8 million tons, in 2018 the preliminary difference estimation is 5.9 million tons. We can see that a lot of milk fat replacers are being imported,» — noted Mikhail Mishchenko.
«Today we are the world second in imports of butter and cheese, the ninth in imports of whole milk powder. We are a large global importer,» — the expert said.
According to the analyst, per capita production is still scarce, both in raw milk and in key dairy products.
«Why does Russia think we need to be an exporter of dairy products? Given the amount of dairy products we supply from Belarus, we can be re-exporters. This is not new to the world; a similar picture is in Holland, which is a major re-exporter of goods, including milk. But we can not be compared with Holland, because in this country there are 42 dairy cows per 1 square. km. In Russia this indicator is 0.26 cows. Even if we take into account our northern lands, fit for dairy farming, the rate is very low. For example, the Bryansk region has a high rate — 5.3 cows per square kilometer, but this is comparable with France,» — said Mikhail Mishchenko.