Russia, St Petersburg

In 1997 Tetra Laval started the “Petmol Project” in St Petersburg. The local dairy Petmol and eight farms around St Petersburg, with more than 9 000 cows, made up the foundation of the project. The aim was simple: to raise milk consumption which had fallen by over 50% - just 50 litres per person per year – since the iron curtain fell in Europe.

The model to restore confidence in milk as a healthy liquid food, was to combine education and training activities to milk farmers, commercial equipment financing to the dairy and the farms, with market development activities.

The project was a unique cooperation between Tetra Pak, DeLaval, Financial Services/Tetra Laval International, and Scanagri Sweden, the consulting arm of the Swedish Farmers’ Association, and was carried out with the support from the Swedish Government’s Baltic Sea Programme.

Except for being a reference project for integrated dairy production and market development, the project also resulted in the following:

- At the farms, the personnel have gone through a three-year training programme and now deliver milk of highest quality. Production volume increased by 26%.
 
- The Petmol dairy, which has new processing and packaging equipment, produces UHT milk of high quality.
 
- The consumption of UHT milk increased by 35% during the project period. Today the market for dairy products is highly developed.
 
The project was completed in 2000. The farm training and extension services have continued on commercial terms and the methods introduced are now also part of the dairy programmes at agricultural schools.

(Model: Agriculture development project led by the private sector, supported by development aid in the form of technical assistance)