Extra tons of “Mercury” or who knows how much milk there is in Russia?

At the disposal of The DairyNews there was a letter from the Rosselkhoznadzor, which contains the report of the department on the registration of raw milk in the “Mercury” system. According to the electronic veterinary certification system, 20.5 million tons of milk were produced in Russia in 2019. This figure is seriously different from official statistics (the Rosstat says that 31.3 million tons of milk were produced in farms of all categories last year), the rating itself raises a lot of questions – first, because the first place in production was occupied by … Krasnoyarsk region.

In the table below, we have collected data from “Mercury” on commercial milk for 2019, official statistics on the total volume of raw milk production of the Rosstat, and data from the Dairy Intelligence Agency on raw commercial milk for 2018.

If you believe in the data of “Mercury", in just a year Krasnoyarsk region has increased production three times! Despite the fact that the EVC system only counts commercial milk, and the Rosstat says that all categories of farms are accounted for, including private households.

According to the Rosstat, milk sales in all categories of farms in Russia amounted to 22.5 million tons in 2019. According to preliminary estimates of the statistical agency, milk production in 2019 amounted to 31.3 million tons. Including 19.58 million tons accounted for production in the sector of agricultural organizations and peasant farm holdings: 2.65 million tons - peasant farm holdings and individual entrepreneurs, 16.93 million tons - in the sector of agricultural organizations.

Analysts of the Dairy Intelligence Agency (DIA) in their estimates take into account only data on agricultural enterprises and peasant farm holdings. This is because private households do not actually participate in market processes and, according to analysts, the indicator of milk production in this category of farms is at the level of error.

So how much milk is there in Russia? Last year the head of the Ministry Dmitry Patrushev and the head of the Rosselkhoznadzor Sergey Dankvert reported about the whitewashing of the market with the system “Mercury", which allows you to track the path of agricultural products from field to fork.

The DairyNews contacted the Ministry of agriculture and the Rosselkhoznadzor for comment, but the agencies did not comment at the time of publication of the material.

In addition, we contacted a number of regional departments of the Rosselkhoznadzor and the Ministry of agriculture of Krasnoyarsk region. The agricultural Department of the region stressed that they do not agree with the figure provided by “Mercury" - according to the Ministry of agriculture, in 2019, slightly more than 631 thousand tons of milk were produced in the region. For comparison, “Mercury " says about more than 1.4 million tons.

In a number of regions, it was reported that they were dealing with inconsistencies in the readings of the “Mercury” system. Will we see the official response from the EVC operator? The DairyNews will continue to monitor the situation and publish the latest information and comments on how much milk there is in Russia.

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