Nizhny Novgorod farmers will start exporting honey in 2022

Prospects for the development of supplies of bee products to the EU countries were discussed in the Nizhny Novgorod region.
Nizhny Novgorod farmers will start exporting honey in 2022. This became known at a meeting that took place in the Nizhny Novgorod region with the participation of representatives of the regional Ministry of Agriculture and Food Resources, Nizhny Novgorod farmers and heads of companies from Lithuania and Poland. During the talks, the parties discussed the prospects for the development of bee products supplies to the EU countries.
“In the Nizhny Novgorod region, there are many farmers and private farms that are successfully engaged in the production of honey. Taking into account the saturation of the domestic market with beekeeping products, there is a need to search for new sales markets, access to export solves this issue. To develop this area, beekeeping farms in the region have to do a lot of work - from improving and retraining skills to producing honey that meets international standards,” said Nikolai Denisov, Minister of Agriculture and Food Resources of the Nizhny Novgorod Region.
To develop the export activity of bee products in the region, an investment project is being implemented, which provides for the creation of a procurement and processing enterprise that plans to purchase honey from farmers, form single batches and send them abroad. On the basis of the enterprise, an express laboratory will be created to control the quality of honey.
The project worth about 50 million rubles is being implemented by Nizhny Novgorod farmer Alexei Tarakanov in the Bogorodsky district. Currently, the project is 80% completed - a production workshop has been built, equipment for heating, mixing and filtering honey has been purchased. For these purposes, in addition to his own funds, the farmer attracted a preferential loan in the amount of 7 million rubles from the Fund for Support of the Agroindustrial Complex of the Nizhny Novgorod Region. In addition, this year the farmer plans to apply for grant support to purchase equipment for a product quality control laboratory.
Administrative and methodological support to the farmer in the implementation of the project is provided by the "Innovation and Consulting Center of the Agroindustrial Complex of the Nizhny Novgorod Region" - a subordinate institution of the regional Ministry of Agriculture.
“Our farm has been engaged in beekeeping for about ten years, and the moment has come when we decided to organize the export of not only our own honey, but also other farmers. To do this, we are creating a cooperative that will unite beekeepers in order to obtain high-quality honey for export. Currently, contracts have been concluded for the supply of 500 tons of honey to European countries, we will send the first batches this spring. In the future, we plan to increase the annual volume of exports to five thousand tons,” said farmer Alexei Tarakanov.
As part of their visit to the Nizhny Novgorod region, representatives of foreign companies visited the production site of the future harvesting and processing enterprise and tasted various varieties of honey from Nizhny Novgorod producers.
“Our company has been in the honey business for 25 years, during which time I have tasted honey all over the world. Russian honey is tasty and of high quality. We see great potential for the development of beekeeping in the Nizhny Novgorod region and are interested in cooperation with local farmers to purchase honey,” said Peter Rogalski, owner of the Polish company.
Recall that within the framework of the national project "International cooperation and export" the Nizhny Novgorod region is implementing the federal project "Export of agricultural products", which provides for increasing the volume of exports of agricultural products. In particular, by 2024 this figure should be increased to $322 million.
Recall that the main task of the national project "International Cooperation and Export", developed in accordance with the decree of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin on the national goals and strategic objectives of the development of the Russian Federation, is to increase export volumes. The national project includes three federal projects: "Industrial export", "Export of agricultural products" and "Systemic measures for the development of international cooperation and export".