The largest cheese plant

The facility is a flagship project in the company’s milk processing business. With the capacity of 1,150 tons of raw milk a day, the plant will soon be processing half of the total milk produced in the Siberian region.

‘There are five project milestones aligned with commissioning of five facilities’, says Roman Denisevich, Construction Director. ‘The first one will be launched in 2021 to start production of pasteurized milk, yoghurts and prepare the first cheese wheels for ripening. The start-up of the fifth facility is scheduled for quarter 1 of 2022.’

Currently, erection of steel structures and designing of building utility systems are underway. The next stage will be processing equipment installation and utility connection.

‘Our project fits well with the updated development strategy of EkoNiva Group’, comments Sergey Lyakhov, EkoNiva-APK Holding Regional Director. ‘We are a major raw milk producer, and now we are ready to enter the market with our unique Russian brand products which undergo a strict quality control from field to shelf. Cheese will be our key product. We are planning to produce three types of cheese.’

The three types include the classical semi-hard Gouda-type cheese (55 tons a day, 550 tons of raw milk), self-pressing cheese (35 tonnes a day, 350 tonnes of raw milk) and hard cheese ripening on average from 6 to 12 months and for 18 months for the premium product. The plant is expected to produce approximately 10 tons of hard cheese per day, raw milk consumption will amount to 100 tonnes.

‘The product line-up will include traditional dairy products, like ryazhenka, milk, butter, curds, kefir and yoghurt’, continues Sergey Lyakhov. ‘Moreover, we are planning to make around 35 tons of demineralized whey powder.’

The objective of the company is to supply most of the goods – about 70% – to the European regions of Russia and such promising markets as Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and China. Moreover, EkoNiva has already shipped the first lot of its dairy products to the Celestial Empire.

‘We hope that the quality of our cheeses will meet the standards of the premium segment’, says Sergey Lyakhov. ‘Furthermore, we want to introduce our goods to customers from the European Union, who associate Siberia with an unspoilt environment and a vast expanse of fields, which adds up to the positive image of the brand.’

Successful operation of the plant requires uninterrupted supply of high-quality raw milk. By 2023, about 90% of milk will be sourced from the company’s own farms, while the rest will be purchased from third producers in the Siberian region.

By Tatyana Ignatenko