Ekosem-Agrar expands to St. Petersburg region with acquisition
Since last week the farm has been part of the Ekosem-Agrar Group with an agricultural area of almost 3,200 ha and approx. 1,520 cattle, 750 of which are dairy cows.
With the acquisition, Ekosem-Agrar AG moves into in the Leningrad region, which surrounds St. Petersburg, Russia's second largest city, with around 5m inhabitants.
In order to supply the area with locally-sourced milk products in the future, the group needed its own local raw milk production. In addition to taking over further farms and agricultural land, two new, modern dairy cow facilities are to be built in the region by the end of 2022.
The company said the medium-term goal of the management board is to produce and process around 200 tons of raw milk per day for the greater St. Petersburg area. Until the investments in land and facilities have been made to serve the market with its own dairy, the Leningrad region will initially be supplied with EkoNiva brand products from the group's existing dairies as of the second half of 2019.
Stefan Dürr, CEO of Ekosem-Agrar AG, said, "With Leningrad we have opened up our ninth region in Russia. This region is particularly attractive for the sale of our dairy products due to its economic importance for Russia and its increased purchasing power. This brings us a good step closer to our strategic goal of becoming the first integrated producer of high-quality milk products with nationwide coverage.”