Danone to invest in Siberian expansion

More investment in Russia is planned by Danone following its promise to pump around €30 million into developing dairy plants in the Ukraine. Now the French dairy says it will invest a further €68m in expanding the Siberian Yalutorovsky processing plant within the next two years.

Capacity there is to be increased by 40% while Danone is helping regional government encourage local farms to increase milk output for the dairy to avoid long-distance shipments. Medium-term target is a doubling of deliveries from Siberian herds which would mean an annual total of nearly 370 m kg. Danone’s marketing director for the Russian region, Ives Legros, says main products out of Yalutorovsky will be the probiotic yogurt Activia, the yogurt coffee crème Danissimo and a popular  regional yogurt recipe “Prostokvashino”, which is so far mainly produced in Danone’s Ukrainian plants.