Natalia Kozlova: Russian dairy complexes are 10-15% equipped with domestic production equipment

‘I have been working with dairy complexes for 20 years. All of them were equipped with Russian equipment in the amount of no more than 10-15% of the cost. Mostly it was free-stall equipment: individual box dividers, gates, fencing of the feed table, and so on. The main motive for choosing a domestic manufacturer is, as a rule, lower cost with slightly different functionality. However, this fact does not apply to more complex stall structures, where high – quality fittings of imported equipment involves high functionality and reliability,’ reported the Deputy Director for production of LLC Agroalliance Invest to The DairyNews.

According to the expert, many foreign manufacturers have placed their production of stall equipment in Russia and to this day successfully compete with fully imported equipment. Enginee ring companies that assemble equipment using imported components in the Russian Federation are also developing.

The Deputy Director for production of LLC Agroalliance Invest emphasized that today dairy producers often make a choice in favor of imported equipment, especially when it comes to complex equipment that has a high level of automation and broad functional guarantees. For example, milking parlors, manure removal and processing systems, and systems for maintaining the microclimate in the cowshed.

‘If we talk about the future of the domestic manufacturer of equipment for dairy farming, we can draw an analogy with the same stall equipment, in which we already compete with imported analogues in the domestic market. Yes, not all issues of technology have been worked out yet, much remains to be done in terms of functional accessories, reliability, convenience and safety, but never ending elaboration of details, constant improvements - this is the natural way of development of any equipment,’ Natalia Kozlova said.

However, according to Natalia Kozlova, the Russian manufacturer will not completely replace the market positions of imported manufacturers. As an example, she cited the situation with the Russian automobile industry: despite the fact that there is a steady and significant demand for domestic cars on the market, a significant part of consumers prefer foreign cars.