Agrosila can feed foreign purchasers with low-lactose milk made by Tatarstan

The new product plans to be made in autumn 2020, the possibility of the product’s exports is already considered

Low-cost milk made in Tatarstan can already appear on shelves across Russia by October or November. Such plans were announced at Agrosila-Moloko’s online conference on 11 June. As Realnoe Vremya’s correspondent found out, the company was considering the possibility of exporting the product, while a line of halal milk products was ready to be made in the country, and the modernisation of its plants would continue at the same time.

Production modernisation

This year Agrosila-Moloko LLC has grown a rise in production capacities — over the five months, the company has made 16,000 tonnes of products for 800 million rubles, which has been 120% compared to last year. And this considers that the production capacities are 66% full at the moment.

Now the enterprise continues the modernisation of the production chain: separators, homogenisers are gradually replaced — all this influences the taste of products, their durability. According to plan, equipment for packing cottage cheese into flow pack film and a new sour cream packing line into cups will be launched in August.

“We didn’t change our investment programmes because of the pandemic. The plans for this year remain,” Vice Director General of Agrosila JSC Svetlana Bayrasheva stated.

The amount of investments in the modernisation totalled 21 million rubles. The company plans to pay the costs back for three years.

Low-lactose milk and halal line

According to Vice Director General of Agrosila JSC Svetlana Bayrasheva, together with the marketing department, the company considered several options to expand categories of products and chose two new products.

“The first area is very topical for our republic — it is halal products. We obtained necessary permits — halal certificates that permit us to make these products. This year we will be expanding the line by making cottage cheese and butter,” the speaker noted. The company has made only halal milk so far.

Low-lactose milk is the second novelty. The case is that according to the WHO, one in five people become lactose intolerant (milk sugar) with time. This happens because the organism lacks a special ferment that breaks lactose down. The amount of lactose in the new product will reduce from 4,7% to 0,1% thanks to additional processing. It is planned to appear on the shelves in October-November already.

Export plans

Svetlana Bayrasheva says that at the moment Agrosila keeps selling milk products in chain stores across Russia, they aren’t exported yet. But the company is considering this option. She means whey powder, dry milk and butter if storage terms are met.

The possibility or impossibility of exports determines the sell-by date. For instance, it won’t be possible to export halal milk, but it will be possible to supply low-lactose milk abroad.

“We will likely elaborate this area because its sell-by date will be up to six months,” says the vice director general of Agrosila JSC.

By Maria Gorozhaninova
Tatarstan