Moscow plans to produce 670k tons of milk by 2021

The Moscow region authorities declare a significant increase in production of organic milk. According to Denis Butsaev, Deputy Prime Minister of the Moscow Region, by the end of 2017, the region had second-largest domestic gross milk production in the Central Federal district, and the projections 2018 are even more impressive.

"The plan for this year is to produce 670 thousand tons of milk, and by 2021, to reach the production of 1 million tons," Denis Butsaev said.

This year, the Russian Government extended the food embargo that significantly affected the dairy industry. According to "Financial Expertise", the dynamics of milk imports in the country in January to July 2018 compared to the same period in 2017 shows powder milk and cream volumes have reduced almost by half. This figure is primarily due to restrictions on supplies from Belarus started from June 6. According to the National Dairy Producers Union (Soyuzmoloko), the import of raw milk, including powder milk and whey from the Republic of Belarus showed a decrease of 19% and 40%, which are 51.2 and 29.6 thousand tons, respectively.

"The main importing countries of dairy products to the Moscow Region this year and the previous year are Belarus and New Zealand. The total volume of imports of dairy products in the Moscow Region in 2017 amounted to 53.5 thousand tons, while this year the planned indicator does not exceed 46 thousand tons," Andrey Razin,  Minister of Agriculture and Food of the Moscow Region stated. "At the same time, if we compare the volumes of imported raw materials with the production of dairy products on local farms, this volume is estimated less than one tenth tons. As for gross domestic production of milk, according to the results of 2017, the Moscow Region in 2017 was seconds in the Central Federal district".

Experts and representatives of the government officials are going to discuss the current situation in the dairy market from the viewpoint of milk production, import and export of dairy products in more details on November 27 and 28, 2018
at V International Agricultural Dairy Forum in Krasnogorsk. The plenary session will develop new terms for dairy business, including issues of regulation, milk consumption and export potential of Russian producers.

"During the Dairy Forum this year we plan to sign at least 10 investment agreements with the total amount of more than 4.5 billion rubles, which will support the development of the Moscow Region dairy industry, including modern milk processing enterprises. The Central Region and the Moscow Region are highly favorable for new investments in the dairy industry. The government of the Moscow Region will continue to support the dairy industry in form of recovering capital costs, special subsidies for milk production, and grants for the development of family livestock farms," Denis Butsaev, Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Moscow Region, said.