Dairy industry experts assess the state and prospects of the industry

The 16th Russian Forum on Innovative Technologies and Equipment in the Dairy Industry was held within the Agroprodmash conference programme at Expocentre Fairgrounds today. The forum, organised by KVK Imperia, was attended by representatives of the dairy industry, R&D institutes, industry unions, producers of dairy products and equipment.

The analytical session “Where Dairy Rivers Lead: Global Changes in the Market in 2021-2022” was opened by Artyom Belov, Director General of the National Union of Milk Producers Soyuzmoloko, who moderated the event. In his presentation, he outlined five key trends that are important for the development of the dairy market, and four key risks that have emerged on the market in 2021 and could fundamentally affect the situation in the dairy industry.

"First, dairy processing has become number one in terms of the amount of investment attracted to the segment. Over the past 10 years, investments have amounted to more than RUB 250 billion. The second trend is consolidation in milk production and processing. The 30 largest companies have increased their sales volumes by almost 1.5 times in 5 years. The third trend is import substitution as a key driver of market development. The fourth is the dynamic development of dairy exports: in 2021, growth is expected to be around 20%. The fifth trend is the consumption structure change over the 7 years. In general the dairy market developed dynamically attracting investments. The fifth trend is the change in consumption patterns over the last 7 years. In general, the dairy market has developed dynamically in recent years, attracting investment. Consolidation trends have persisted," the expert said.

The session participants discussed mandatory labelling, state support measures when introducing labelling in dairies, export-import potential of the dairy industry, dairy commodity exchanges, principles for calculating changes in raw milk production costs and other important topics. Presentations were made by Mikhail Mishchenko, Director of the Dairy Market Research Centre and Editor-in-Chief of Dairy News, Rimma Churina, Business Development Manager of GFK Rus, Yakov Panferov, operator of the national digital labelling system Fair Mark and Lidia McShane, member of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and business mediator.

At the Robotics manufacturing session, delegates drew attention to the fact that Russia is a territory with high robotisation potential. The introduction of robotics is a clear technological leap, allowing the plant to develop dynamically in a highly competitive environment: robots increase the reliability and versatility of the plant.

Representatives of OMRON, Meridian, Alternativa, EKOM, TechTrends Group talked about trends in robotisation of dairy enterprises, specifics of the I-Automation concept, projects of digital labelling implementation in the dairy industry, etc.

The forum included sessions entitled "Trends of Tomorrow in Processing Technologies: A Course towards Innovativeness" and "Ingredients of the Future".

In the interactive zone, the forum participants were able to meet industrial robots in person. They had the opportunity not only to ask engineers questions about the technical features of robotisation, but also to work with the robots themselves and configure them for their tasks.

Watch a live stream: https://youtu.be/oTngStO9wz8.