“To address the current issues with the availability of foreign-made ingredients, namely starter cultures, processing companies have changed supply chains, started using parallel imports, and increased their reserves to a technologically reasonable extent,” the document says.
According to the regulator's report, fermented milk product producers in the Chelyabinsk region have almost entirely switched to domestically produced ingredients. An enterprise located in the Kurgan region claimed to have internally sourced cultivation of kefir fungi, used for the production of starter cultures. An enterprise located in the Orenburg region that successfully implemented production of dry fermentation starters 5 years ago is willing to increase their production capacity by several times.
A general increase in the production of marketable milk is expected in the Urals in 2023. In the Orenburg region, a new dairy facility was launched at the end of the previous year. Two more sites are to be put into operation by the end of the current year. The dairy products from the dairy plant in the Orenburg region are to be launched in the spring of this year. The necessary equipment is currently being installed at the plant.
“At the same time, the majority of the surveyed participants in the dairy market note a decrease in the profitability of dairy production resulting from a shift in consumer preferences towards dairy products with low added value,” the review observed.
