Russian Ag Ministry “dark secrets”
Russian Ministry of Agriculture is aware of but hides the mismatches in statistics, milk and dairy products production drop does not trouble it, and the market depression the Ministry confuses with seasonal facts.
DairyNews has a videotape of a close meeting hold by Vladimir Labinov, head of the Department of Animal Husbandry and Breeding at Russian Ministry of Agriculture, with dairy sector participants on July 23. Among the latter were representatives of the following companies: SIG Combibloc, Unilever, Ural Dairy Factory, Spektr, Ermann, Russian Dairy Union, PepsiCo, Parmalat, Molvest, Milko, Prodinvest, Campina, Voronezh Dairy Plant.
According to Mr. Labinov, gross milk production in all categories of enterprises decreased approximately by 5%. The volume of commercial milk production hasn’t changed. However the expert fairy admitted doubtfulness of official data, as far as it differs significantly with Russian Statistics Committee (Rosstat) figures and his own monitoring results. Mr. Labinov also expressed doubtfulness in regard to agricultural enterprises statistics. He also pointed out that for the processing sector volume of commercial milk production is more important than the gross milk production: production of commercial milk in Russia hasn’t dropped.
He also noticed that the volume of whole milk products output continues growing – by 4%. Was left without conclusion the fact that whole milk products production exceeds commercial milk output. The expert either meant statistics uncertainty, or adulteration with vegetable fats, or ingredients for dairy sector import growth.
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