OREANDA-NEWS. On 24 July 2009 was announced, that Lenta network of trade store had invited journalists to track the entire chain of pricing on the example of milk: from a dairy farm, milk processing plant and packing to the shelves of Lenta trade stores

The company’s partners -"Galaxy" Group of Companies and "Krasnogvardeisky" livestock breeding farm- provided help in the organization of this press -tour. The first point on the route was the dairy of "Krasnogvardeisky" livestock breeding farm which is listed among the best ten agricultural production enterprises in Leningrad region. Staff of the farm demonstrated the advanced cow-milking-machines manufactured by Swedish firm Delaval, worth about ten millions roubles. The equipment operates without any manual labor involved: an operator working on a computer, by means of special software, just traces which cow was milked and how much milk it gave. "Krasnogvardeisky" is the only farm in the region having such equipment. And across all Russia such miracle machines are operating just in two farms. Purchase of the equipment allowed to increase milk yields of one cow from 20 liters per day up to 36, and there are some "shock workers" who give as much as 57. The farm delivers about 1,8 tons of milk daily for further processing. The average price is 12 roubles per liter (depending on quality and characteristics of milk).

The following stop on the milk’s way to the table of the townspeople, and another point of our travel, was milk processing factory of "Galaxy" Group of Companies. Notwithstanding that the factory processes about 800 tons of milk per day, the enterprise employs just about 40 persons. This is achieved through automation of the entire process -from washing of milk tankers, milk quality control, up to its processing and packing. Investments in the equipment have made more than 2 billion roubles with payback time of 7-12 years. There are only two plants of such level in Russia. According to the estimations of Finnish Minister of Agriculture, Galaxy is the most advanced processing enterprise in Europe. During processing the price of milk (and the factory makes only high-quality products) increases up to 24 roubles on the average. The "increase" is due to packing, costs of milk acceptance and control, exploitation costs.

10-15 % more are added to the product’s price by the distributor –transportation of products in special machines requires payment of wages to staff and investments in special equipment. Upon delivery to the store, milk is accepted and put on the shelves right after. Modern retail trade is a hi-tech business: stackers doing transportation of the pallets with the goods cost more than one million roubles, and refrigerating equipment where the product is kept, - more than 35 million roubles. In milk products section there are 14 persons working, they accept, lay out the goods (sometimes up to 5 times per day). The labor of the staff maintaining the shop clean is paid separately. The essential part is exploitation costs and payment of credits for purchase of the equipment and opening of the stores. All these costs add over 10 % to the price of milk and dairy products on the average. According to Sergey Syamichev, product category manager of the direction "Milk and Dairy Products " of Lenta company, extra charge on milk, in comparison with similar period of the previous year, has decreased for 3 %.

"Milk is a product of social concern, and extra charge thereon cannot be high", - he explains. "At the same time, some cheaper milk for the price from 21,5 roubles per liter is also offered by the network. But the buyer can also purchase milk of higher quality, made by "Galaxy" plant. And it’s up to the buyer to decide what product to choose.