Danone upgrades Russian dairy

Danone takes another step towards enlarging its presence in Russian and other CIS markets with the current modernisation of its Yekaterinburg dairy including updated milk powder plant and filling line at a reported cost of €24.6 million. The international €14 billion per year turnover Danone, claimed to be the biggest yogurt producer in the world, teamed up with the Russia Unimilk dairy in 2010. Two years later the joint venture became full owners of Yekaterinburg dairy in the city of that name, actually the fourth biggest city in Russia (1.4 m citizens), situated some 2,000 km eastwards of Moscow. Danone wants to see a weekly output from the new powder production unit of at least 400 tonnes per week, baby food standard.

With the Yekaterinburg dairy and the partly owned Kingisepp dairy (northwest Russia) the French-Russian partnership is now believed to have over 20% of the dairy products market in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Danone-Unimilk now has a total 30 production plants in the western CIS regions. Scheduled for later this year, according to Russian press reports, is also a big expansion for output at Kingisepp.