IDM ¦ Markets
"The sale of our dairy products has decreased under
government contracts. Kindergardens remained closed
during the period of lockdown, and our sales in this area
stopped. At the same time, demand in the retail segment
was up, as people preferred to stay at home and consume
more dairy products", said Anastasia Bazyleva, chairman of
the sales department of the South Sakhalin collective farm.
Quite a few companies reported that the market demand
even exceeded their expectations. For example, the
Semicarakorsky cheese factory increased sales by 23%.
According to Elena Fomina, deputy general director of the
factory, millions of Russians were not allowed to travel,
which greatly supported domestic demand.
Soaring costs, mounting concerns
On January 18, the Russian government initiated a mass
vaccination against the coronavirus with its Sputnik V
vaccine, which is projected to constrain the pace of the
epidemic already in the next few months and return life
back to normal.
However, the Russian dairy producers are confident that
for them, 2021 would be worse than the previous year.
The main concern is associated with the compulsory labeling,
36 · May/June 2021 ¦ international-dairy.com
or tagging reform ordered by the government to fight
counterfeit in the food market.
The Russian union of dairy producers Soyuzmoloko
estimated that the tagging will put an additional financial
burden on the Russian dairy industry, around Rub61 billion
($900 million). For comparison, the Russian dairy industry's
entire revenue amounted to Rub35 billion ($500 million) in
2019.
The tagging reform was originally slated for 2020 but
postponed for mid-2021 due to the pandemic. On January
20, 2021, The Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade initiated
labeling with QR codes of milk and cream with a shelf
life above 28 days, as well as ice cream.
Starting July 1, 2021, the labeling is proposed to extend
to milk and cream with a shelf life of less than 28 days,
cheese, butter, milk pastes, cottage cheese, and soft drinks
with milk fat, and from October 1, 2021 – buttermilk, yogurt,
kefir, condensed milk, and other products. For farms that
independently sell their own dairy products, it is proposed to
delay mandatory tagging until October 1, 2022.
"During the past several years, there was a lot of
back-and-forth with the tagging reform. Now, the
authorities are concerned that the project could spur the
The pandemic has changed the demand for dairy products
/international-dairy.com
/international-dairy.com
