Adygea is not able to meet the demand for Adygei cheese - Association

The current geographical indication provoked a catastrophic drop in the market of Adygei cheese. And if in 2017, compared to 2016, according to the international research company AC Nielsen, the market fell by 14.3%, in the first half of 2018, in comparison with the same period of 2017, the decline accelerated and amounted to 35.8%.

Source: AC Nielsen, the calculations of the Analytical Department

Source: AC Nielsen, the calculations of the Analytical Department

Of course, the share of Adygei producers in the falling market is growing significantly. But in fact, Adygei cheese disappears from the shelves.

At the same time, the Adygei producers assure that there is enough milk in the Republic to meet the demand for Adygei cheese. Let's turn to statistics.

According AdegeaStat in 2017 on the territory of the Republic there was produced 122 thousand tons of milk by all types of farms, the share of households was more than 87%. According to estimations of Soyuzmoloko only 50% of this milk was marketable. Thus, only 61 thousand tons of milk was sent to local milk processing plants for processing.

But the Republic cannot produce only Adygei cheese and not to produce other dairy products. 45 thousand tons of milk was sent to the production of dairy products and butter. For the production of cheese and cottage cheese there are only 16 thousand tons left.

At the same time, a little more than 100 thousand tons of milk was spent on the production of cheese and cottage cheese in Adygea. It turns out that the remaining 83 thousand tons needed for the production of raw materials were imported into the territory of the Republic. This fact is a direct violation of the conditions of the current geographical indication "Adygei cheese" on the use of exclusively local milk in the production of cheese.

The production of dairy products in the Republic of Adygea (data of AdegeaStat):

Thus, Adygei producers actually produce products that fall under the category of "soft cheeses" in accordance with GOST (State stardard) 322632013 "Soft cheeses. Technical conditions" and cannot be called "Adygei cheese".

In the end, the current situation will lead to the disappearance of the product category from the shelves of Russian stores. The consumer, in turn, can easily switch attention to the substitutes of the category. And the increase of the volumes of past periods will take a long time, emphasize in the Association of producers of Adygei cheese.

Earlier it was reported that Adygea intends to increase cheese production 4 times by 2020 and is ready to meet the needs of the Russian Federation in Adygei cheese.

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