Ekosem-Agrar becomes Russia’s largest milk producer

Milk output per day increased to over 310 tons

Walldorf, 5 March 2013 – Ekoniva, a Russian milk producer and subsidiary of Germany’s Ekosem-Agrar GmbH, has once more increased its daily milk output. At present, Ekoniva produces more than 310 tons of milk per day, which makes the company the largest milk producer in Russia.

Overall, the Ekosem-Agrar Group produced some 84.1 million litres of milk in the past fiscal year. This represents a 61% increase on the previous year’s 52.3 million litres. Last year’s daily milk output stood at an average 230 tons. The constant increase in the milk output is attributable to efficiency gains at the company’s farms as well as to the expansion of the dairy cow herd. The daily output per cow has increased from 20.55 litres at the end of 2012 to currently 22.50 litres.

“The massive investments made over the past years in the expansion of the dairy cow herd and in modern sheds and milking technology are now paying off. We have thus laid the basis for continued organic growth in the coming years,” says Stefan Dürr, Managing Director and majority shareholder of the Group.

The outlook for the current year is equally positive. At 44 euro cents, the average price per litre of milk currently exceeds the prior year level by far. Moreover, the company plans to increase the number of dairy cows by more than 50% to 22,300 in the course of the year. The target for the cattle stock is 47,800 up from 37,235 at the end of 2012.