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This milk
Contrasting the products of Russian companies production subsidiaries of foreign companies, Fedorov said: “In these [foreign] products a maximum of 20% of the milk, the rest – converted into milk mixture of coconut, palm oil and other additives.” Large processors reduce the purchase milk from producers, which leads to lower purchasing prices on the market than the transnationals are actively using, the minister said. “It turns out that the government subsidizes the production of milk from the budget, but they are buying it on the cheap and actually pumped himself a lot of money,” – said the head of the Ministry of Agriculture.
Despite the fact that, speaking of multinational companies, Fedorov did not call specific names, the response was immediate. French Danone, already 20 years working in the Russian market, the statement by the Minister at his own expense, and released an angry press release on its official website.
«We are not only outraged by such statements the official, but regard them as a direct slander, causing damage to our reputation both in Russia and around the world,” – said in a statement Danone, on the official site Russian representative office. The statement stressed that the quality of the company’s products have never been challenged by Rospotrebnadzor, and contributions to the budget of Russia for the time of Danone in Russia amounted to about $ 2 billion. “We demand a public refutation of false, defamatory information we have,” – said in a corporation .
Danone’s position was supported by a large lobbying organization – Association Soyuzmoloko. “We will appeal to the government to clarify the reasons for such statements to understand this government’s position or opinion of one or more people,” – said the head of RBC Soyuzmoloko Andrei Danilenko. He has no evidence to have any regulatory bodies, including the CPS, had a claim to the production of Danone or PepsiCo (owned manufacturer of dairy products “Wimm-Bill-Dann”). “Complaints are most often just to small producers and transnational companies are very concerned about their image and will not use any palm oil or vegetable oil, to violate the laws of Russia”, – said RBC Danilenko.
Case Danone and PepsiCo
The Ministry of Agriculture insist that the minister was not wrong address. “The reason for the statement of the Minister of Agriculture was my speech at the meeting in the Ministry of Agriculture about the activities of the companies Danone and PepsiCo in the Russian market”, – told RBC Head of Animal Husbandry and Breeding of Ministry of Agriculture Vladimir Labinov. According to him, these companies systematically reduce the amount of the purchase of raw milk from producers for several years in a row. Despite requests the Ministry of Agriculture, they have not provided any information once in full, according to the representative office.
«We had to ask for Statistics subjects and regions on the basis of which the conclusions were drawn: the dynamics of reduction is evident in all subjects – said Labinov. – The second problem is that Danone in recent years consistently closes dairies, which they bought from “Unimilk” – in Tver, Kostroma, and Novosibirsk regions. And we do not have information about what Danone and PepsiCo set out to develop milk production and to build plants as a business ».
Danilenko schitet that the Ministry of Agriculture chose the wrong time to settle old scores. “Problems in the industry, but they are not in transnational corporations, and in the approach of the Ministry of Agriculture and the fact that Russian processors milk subsidies on production of raw milk are delayed, – says the head Soyuzmoloko. – And they, unlike global companies are not able to live without the money.
Information Ministry of Agriculture that large companies have reduced purchases of milk in Soyuzmoloko do not dispute that in Russia, milk production is reduced, and after for this fall purchasing volumes. And after the closed import more raw materials needed and milk powder producers and cheesemakers, and his was no more, says Danilenko.
The new regulation
Labinov says that after a verbal duel next steps for greater regulation of the market for dairy producers. Ministry of Agriculture wants to introduce new technical regulations on milk and dairy products, prohibiting the use of adjectives such as “sour”, “cheese” product, leaving only the actual “white” dairy products “component (up to 50% of the ingredients, such as cheese and jam and nuts), and others forbid call related adjectives. Also, there are plans to standardize the protein content in milk – in Russia now produced products with an 2.8%, but in Europe – 3.2-3.4%, and a low protein content allows producers from the same amount of raw materials to make more products .
In this endeavor, the Ministry of Agriculture counteracted large companies through the association Soyuzmoloko that appeals, including the fact that while dairy products will become inaccessible to the poor, says Labinov. “In his desire to prevent the introduction of new rules they write complaints about the activities of the Technical Committee for Standardization, which I chair,” – he laments.
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