Agroprodmash 2020: the Russian Dairy Forum assessed the state and prospects of the industry
The first day of the Agroprodmash 2020 international exhibition featured the 15th Russian Forum on Innovative Technologies and Equipment in the Dairy Industry. The forum was held in compliance with all requirements of Rospotrebnadzor. The large Conference Hall of Pavilion No.2 allowed providing seating for all delegates, taking into account the social distance of 1.5 meters. All participants received face masks and gloves at the registration.
The forum is organised by EXPOCENTRE AO and KVK Imperia Forum. It was attended by representatives of the dairy industry, research institutes, professional associations, and manufacturers of dairy products and specialised equipment. For the first time the forum was held in the so-called hybrid format: some of the experts read their reports online.
The plenary session was opened by Director General of the National Dairy Producers Union (Souzmoloko) Artem Belov. In his report on the current state of the dairy industry after the pandemic, he stressed the positive dynamics and continued demand for dairy products.
According to Mr. Belov, such factors as state support of the population, payments for children, reduction of consumers' expenses for foreign holidays, and increase in in-home consumption of dairy products had a significant impact on maintaining the demand.
Speaking about the forecasts for the dairy industry development, the expert stressed the high probability of consumption decrease in the mid-term perspective, preservation of positive dynamics in the raw materials sector, development of Russian production of dairy commodities, export growth against the background of the ruble weakening and reduction in personal incomes. In his opinion, the priority task for producers will be to increase efficiency in production and processing.
Anastasia Dzhafarova, Customer Service Director at GfK Rus Consumer Panel Research, shared the latest research on the FMCG market in Russia in general and especially in the dairy sector. According to her data, the FMCG market continues to grow (+6.3% compared to the second quarter of 2019), but under the influence of the pandemic growth rate in 2020 is slowing down. The key factor is an increase in the average check with the same purchase frequency. According to forecasts, in the near future we can expect an active development of house brands, the return of consumer behavior to pre-crisis levels, and changes in the structure of retailing due to changes in the buyers themselves.
Mikhail Mishchenko, Director General of the Dairy Market Research Center, continued the discussions about the prospects of the industry. In his presentation he drew attention to the changes that are currently taking place in the market structure, namely the sustainable development of regional players, an increase in the number of small and medium-sized companies, and the general trend of deglobalization.
The forum's technology session was dedicated to the implementation of innovative technologies and equipment at modern dairies. The participants learned about different options to improve the energy efficiency of dairy plants and to optimize production and packaging processes.
In the final part of the forum, the participants could take part in a two-hour training, where they could learn the skills of effective optimization of processing losses of production lines at dairy plants in the format of a business game. At the end of the training all the participants received a certificate.
Learn more at https://www.agroprodmash-expo.ru/
Press Service, EXPOCENTRE AO