Organic is a lifestyle

- Last year, the AgriVolga holding celebrated its 15th anniversary. You have large enterprises operating in traditional agriculture, but today we want to talk about organic. You rank first in the country in the production of organic dairy and MEAT products. Please tell us how did you come to this?

- it all started with thoughts about quality in the field of nutrition. I have always been prone to perfectionism: everything I do must be the best, perfect. This approach has always been present in my life, and in studies, and in scientific activities, and in business. In the 90s, I spent a lot of time abroad, including in the usa , got acquainted with the vast food market, and when I returned to RUSSIA, I noticed that we didn’t have the topic of organic matter as the highest quality and purest product. Everywhere on the shelves there was "bio", "eco", these words were used everywhere, and such a product was sold to our customer as something outstanding, pure. But in Europe and the USA, regulation, norms, supervision are behind this, and we have nothing but marketing and an increased price of the product. The same MILKbottled in packages of 35 rubles as usual and 100 rubles as "bio". This essentially misleading the consumer hurt me.

After analyzing the situation, I realized that Russia will still move towards the quality of products, and if the organic sector is properly organized, including legal protection, this segment will become attractive for business.

So in 2007, the agricultural holding "AgriVolga" was created. We acquired 15 collective farms in the Uglich district of the Yaroslavl region, some of them had already gone bankrupt, some were in a pre-bankruptcy state. We began to learn how to grow food, animals, plants without using the achievements of the chemical industry, antibiotics, GMOs, and so on. In the first 2-3 years, internal standards were developed, which focused on the complete exclusion of chemistry in production. Since 2007, not a single hectare of AgriVolga's land has known mineral fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides. Now, out of 115,000 hectares, 30,000 are used for organic agriculture, 85,000 hectares for non-organic agriculture.

When AgriVolga started its activities, many did not believe that agriculture would revive in the Uglich region, everything was so neglected. However, our holding managed to do it. And today the Yaroslavl region is one of the leading regions of the country in the agricultural and organic industries.

We directed our efforts not only to the creation of organic production and processing, but also to the formation of organic legislation in Russia. After seven years of working on this, we have become prominent players, engines of this theme. A Russian law on organic production has appeared, it came into force in 2020. An organic community has been created, it was important for me to create an environment where there are discussions, where my own traditions appear, and the composition of the players expands. It's the most important. And when there are players, the truth will be found, even in disputes - not like 15 years ago, when the topic of organics was not on the Russian market at all.

- And why did you choose the Yaroslavl land for the development of organic agriculture?

 - There are a lot of components. On the southern lands, fertile, rich, it is easy to get a huge harvest. And add fertilizer there - the profit will grow by itself. It is not profitable to use this land for less efficient organic agriculture. Organics need soils that are less fertile. And the climatic conditions are more severe, it is hard for pests there. Let's say, if some kind of pest beetle in the south of Russia attacks the field, then it is impossible to cope with it without chemistry, it is good for it there. And here it is hard for everyone - both those who cultivate and those who harm. Easier to deal with insects, weeds. That is why organics are interested in the lands of the middle zone.

The second important point is animals. In organic farming, a cow must be able to survive, because it is forbidden to treat her with antibiotics. It must be a strong, healthy animal with a good immune system. And in the south of Russia there are no such people for a long time - the Holstein breed is used there, which cannot live without powerful chemical additives, without antibiotics. We needed a healthy cow - and this is the Yaroslavl breed, reliable, bred, as they say, by the method of folk selection - when the best representatives survive in difficult conditions. A cow of the Yaroslavl breed can give up to 9 lactations, lives for a long time.

And finally, frames. Uglich has preserved a powerful dairy tradition, it is VNIIMS (All-Russian Research Institute of Cheese and Butter Making), the flagship of science in cheese making, this organization has been educating top-level specialists for many years.

So, due to a combination of factors, we chose the Yaroslavl region.

 - What are the main principles of organic agriculture?

 - The task of organics is to obtain a pure final product, produced in such a way that it does not contain even the smallest concentrations of foreign substances. In industrial agriculture, herbicides, pesticides, nitrogen or phosphorus fertilizers, and so on, animals are fed products of intensive agriculture, they are treated with antibiotics, hormones are used - and all this ends up in products. Sometimes someone laughs when we say that a cow should be happy. But it is so. The animal must live its normal, free life. For example, we immediately feel the manifestations of stress, a lot changes in the body, because there is a hormonal release. Also with animals. And when a product from such an animal in constant stress gets on the table, the concentration of harmful substances in it is exceeded, they also affect a person.

An allergy appears, or, for example, irritation, a bad mood - and we may not even understand what the problem is. Or, say, you can try to lose weight, monitor your weight, but if the diet contains foods that contain hormones, antibiotics, all our efforts come to naught.

Organic is free from this. Its main principles are the absence of any chemicals in crop and livestock production. Even weeds have a special approach. For example, perennial grasses such as clover are grown in the fields, they clog weeds, and the land is fertilized. There are other principles: the animals on our farms are free to graze, move freely around the farm, do not experience stress, and get sick less often. 

And all this is legally regulated. That's why organic is important. In Northern Europe, for example, the consumption of organic products reaches 40 percent of all production. That is, it is a conscious choice of consumers. Yes, such products are more expensive, but cleaner. And when you decide how to spend your budget, then if HEALTH is a preference, then you should choose organic products.

- Each employee of AgriVolga sincerely cares about the cause, everyone is involved in the idea of ​​organics, many say that it is impossible to work in organics without getting involved in the topic, and this changes the worldview, becomes not just a favorite job, but also a philosophy of life. Have you also come to such a personal perception of the values ​​of organic agriculture, organic products?

 - Yes, this is both a personal commitment and already family traditions. When you realize the value of organics, you already wonder why not everyone understands this, how you can harm yourself and eat non-organic products. Organic is becoming a lifestyle. 

But marketers and retail chains abuse this a lot. People have a request for a healthy diet, for organic food. But there are a lot of fakes, tricks - "bio", "eco", "farm", "natural". Organics are regulated by law, and such allegedly “healthy products” are not supported by anything, are not regulated, and are no different from the general mass of products. As a result, the consumer buys "bio", spending more money, and actually buys the same product that stands nearby without such marks. They overpay for beautiful packaging, buzzwords and promises of “healthy” and “natural”. But if you really care about yourself, buy the product that is additionally protected by law - organic. And if not, buy an ordinary product, but not the most expensive of the usual ones, at least you will save.

If we return to the philosophy of organics, it is also a careful attitude to nature. When we say that a cow should be happy, this is also a concern for nature. When we say that we do not apply chemical fertilizers to the soil, this means that the earth will be healthy and will be able to renew and replenish. We need clean water, we need birds that fight pests, and so on. That is, organic is a complex attitude to the ecosystem, unity with nature.

- Gradually, AgriVolga began not only to produce, but also to process organic matter. In 2013, you launched two of your factories, and full-cycle production appeared. And later you decided to separate the production of organic and non-organic products - now only organic products are made at the AgriVolga factories, and USMZ (Uglich Cheese-Dairy Plant) produces non-organic products.

 - Yes, from the very beginning we assumed that there would be not only production, but also processing. In addition, we produce not only milk and meat, but also a lot of fermented milk products and cheese. And also the production of sausages and other meat products. All this requires capacities, and they must be clean, for the processing of organic products. We purposefully followed this path.

There was also a certain logic. After several years of active development of organics, we made a conscious decision that it is interesting to engage in non-organic business as well. In organics, the requirements for specialists are very high. Our team consists of professionals consciously involved in the business of organics, with a high level of qualification and intellect. At the same time, the organic market in Russia is still small, and I wanted to load my employees more, give them the opportunity to realize themselves on a wider basis, and work more efficiently. Therefore, at some point we decided that we would work in non-organic agriculture. And the best thing that can be done in non-organic agriculture is to produce milk, dairy products, cheeses as natural as possible, without any additives or substitutes, as is often done in industrial agriculture. After all, we know how often animal fats are replaced with vegetable fats, and protein can also be replaced with powders. We chose an absolutely natural segment, although not organic. And delicious - we generally pay a lot of attention to the taste of products, while maintaining their natural taste.

 - You demonstrate the social responsibility of business by developing both organic and high-quality non-organic production. Including doing a great job of preserving the traditions of cheese making.

- Yes, cheese is a very interesting topic. By the 70s of the last century, excellent technologies were developed in Russian cheese-making. Since the beginning of the 20th century, a whole scientific school has existed and developed in Uglich, continuing the traditions of domestic cheesemaking, here recipes for unique cheeses from Russian milk were created.

I would like to note that cheese-making is more complicated than wine-making in terms of the complexity of biological processes. It doesn’t occur to anyone that if you bring, for example, some starters or other components from France to us, then exactly the same wine will turn out here. It will still be different. The same with cheese. You can't just bring imported starter powder here, pour it into our milk - and good cheese will appear. Our milk is different, which means that the microbiological processes are different. And Soviet microbiology has already worked through these issues. But in the 90s, many domestic achievements, including those in the food industry, were discarded. And it turned out that European starter powders are brought to us from abroad, milk is poured in - but first we must also use inhibitors that kill milk. As a result, then the cheese is made from dead milk.

But such cheese will not be able to compete with cheese, which is made from live milk. We took the path of preserving domestic traditions. Our plant works on domestic starter cultures, on historical traditions that were developed at VNIIMS. Therefore, our cheeses are distinguished by high taste qualities. When you try them, you no longer want to switch to analogues. This is how we create our niche in the market.

- What breeds of animals do you use in the organic production of AgriVolga?

- Our organic farm has about 3,500 beef cattle, about 2,500 dairy cattle, about 6,000 sheep, and about 400 Toggenburg goats.

Meat breed - Aberdeen-Angus, huge hornless animals. Black Angus is the most popular meat breed of cattle. It is believed that the meat of Aberdeen Angus cows is superior in taste and quality to any other breed. Angus are unpretentious, they have strong immunity. And there is an important point: we are not engaged in grain fattening, only herbal. Therefore, our angus meat is different from intensively grown angus meat. Our meat is healthier. A cow has a four-chamber stomach, unsuitable for eating grain, there is no fiber in the grain. In intensive production, in order to artificially create marbling in the meat, they begin to feed the Angus with grain for the last 4 months. The cow becomes obese and, in fact, poisoning the body. In our country, grass-fed cows grow more slowly, at a natural pace. We do not strive for meat marbling, our goal is quality taste. That's why our meat can be eaten without sauce - it is delicious on its own, and the fatty taste of marbled meat has to be interrupted with sauce.

In dairy farming, we use Yaroslavl and jersey. As I have already noted, the Holstein breed, which we do not take, is a product of selection, it is heavily modified genetically in order to maximize milk yield, but the body of this cow wears out quickly. We do not consider a cow as a factory for the production of milk, animals are treated with care and respect. Yaroslavl breed and jersey are healthy animals with good immunity, they give delicious full-fat milk.

- Organic lamb is quite a rare product on the market. What breeds of sheep do you breed?

 - We use Romanov breed and Dorset. These breeds are good not only for organics. And that's why. Sheep have a peculiarity - they are not polyester: a sheep can bear offspring only once a year. And to get high-quality lamb, saturated, but not fatty meat without aftertaste, you need a ten-month-old lamb. If sheep give birth only once a year, a ten-month-old lamb is not always available, so the quality of lamb is floating among suppliers - they take animals of a different age.

And only the Romanov breed can produce offspring all year round. No wonder the French first took the Romanov out of Russia, then the Canadians took it out of France, understanding the value of the breed. At the same time, the consumer qualities of Romanov sheep meat are average. But the Dorset is a meat breed. Canadians have established that crossing a Romanovka and a Dorset leads to guaranteed meat offspring, and ten-month-old lambs can be obtained all year round. We now have two Dorset herds and about 10 Romanovka herds. AgriVolga is the only company in Russia with such two large Dorset herds. We keep them separately, but when we need commercial offspring, we cross them. Therefore, we always have ten-month-old lamb, always of the same high quality and taste.

- In less than a year, AgriVolga mastered the production of organic products from goat's milk. What is this product?

  - We have noticed that in our Organic Market stores there is a great demand for goat products. And we decided to meet this demand. In 2021, we bought Toggenburg goats - this is the oldest Swiss breed, hardy and unpretentious animals that are comfortable in the Russian climate. We started producing pasteurized goat's milk, and then in the past 2022 we mastered the production of goat's milk cheeses - Buch-de-Chevre and Fromage, organic, produced under the Ugleche Pole brand. And we continue to expand the range of goat cheeses - this month Tomino di Capra cheese was launched, after certification it will also be produced as organic.

 - In addition to such a delicacy as goat cheese, surely AgriVolga also produces other exclusive products? Do you have a product that you can't find in your organic competitors?

 - Ugurt. This product was born during our attempts to make yogurt. We didn't get a matrix. Finally, we realized that regular yogurt can only be made with the addition of powdered milk. But in organics, milk powder is not used. We have remained true to our principles. And they made their own product - ugurt, and the name was born from the crossing of the name of the city of Uglich and the word "yogurt". By the way, we sell it mainly in Organic Market stores. The fact is that during transportation, ugurt cannot be shaken, because of this it loses its consumer qualities. In our stores, a careful attitude to products is ensured, so ugurt gets on the store shelf in the right quality. Ugurt is a very healthy, tasty, natural organic product.

- What are the results of organic production in 2022, what are the dynamics?

- In 2022, the AgriVolga agricultural holding improved its indicators for the production of organic products from milk by 5-6%. The dynamics is associated with the promotion of organics, demand and promotion in retail chains.

In 2022, we produced and sold 1940 thousand tons of organic dairy products, and 735 thousand tons of organic meat products.

- AgriVolga actively cooperates with retailers, including in the development of organic private labels. Tell us about it, please.

 - We produce 40% of organic meat and dairy products in Russia. Therefore, it is natural that those retail chains that want to make their own organic private labels turn to us. We make products for the Azbuka Vkusa chains under the Nasha Farm trademark, for the Perekrestok federal retail chain - Green Line, for the Ecomarket and Samokat online food delivery networks - under brands identical to theirs. names.

Private label is a unique advantage for retail. But we, in turn, as an organic producer, do not compromise in terms of quality: AgriVolga works with retailers to create private labels, only on condition that a high level of quality is maintained.

At the same time, our own organic brand Ugleche Pole has a strong position, it is already known, trusted and sold better than private label chains, so retailers often give preference to its sales. We sell Ugleche Pole brand products in our Organic Market brand stores, as well as in large retail chains.

- Your team is a real stellar team that moves the development of organics forward. Who are these professionals?

 - Yes, only a close-knit professional team can cope with such serious tasks. And we must not only know our business, but also share our values. The team has been building up over the years. I remember how, at the dawn of our company, tractor drivers sincerely did not understand why we demanded that the oil from the gearbox should not drip onto the field. But gradually everyone was imbued with the essence of organics. And for 15 years we have a stable team. By the way, our employees themselves eat organic products, they buy AgriVolga products in Uglich. Because they know how it was created, they believe in it. And this is a great achievement, in my opinion.

Our team includes our partners, specialists from VNIIMS (All-Russian Research Institute of Butter and Cheese Making) and FGBNU Experimental Biofactory. VNIIMS at one time picked up the developments and traditions of domestic cheese-making, developed by the father of Russian cheese-making, Vereshchagin, and continued to preserve and develop new recipes for domestic cheeses. In the experimental workshop of VNIIMS organic cheeses "AgriVolga" are produced. And the biofactory preserves a large microbiological collection of starter cultures, which create the very real taste of cheese, sour cream.

And we try to preserve and develop traditions by common efforts. On the one hand, in general for the history of the country, so that it would not be eaten by imported consumer goods. And on the other hand, if we present it correctly to consumers, then products based on our own developments and starter cultures are tastier and of higher quality. Gradually being formed, the consumer begins to appreciate it. This is the difference from the products of some faceless plant. And we want to fix it. Including, creating a unique museum on the territory of the USMZ, in which we will tell about the history of domestic cheese making and about modern opportunities. I invite everyone to visit our museum this summer.

- Probably, it was not easy to promote organics in Russia, especially since AgriVolga was a pioneer in this sector of agriculture. What were the biggest barriers you had to overcome? And what do you see as the main difficulties in the development of this sector today?

 - The main difficulty is the lack of information among the population, which marketers use to mislead people. And today it is unprofitable for retail to highlight organics on the shelf - its wholesale price is higher than that of “bio” and “eco” products, and the sale price is the same, so it is more profitable for retail chains to buy not organic milk, but milk with incomprehensible prefixes “bio”. "," natural "and so on. That is, networks have no desire to form a population, while organics do not have enough strength for this. We need investments, special programs. We conduct educational work, but this does not happen systematically.

As a result, people seem to strive for a healthy diet, but are easily deceived. And the current law on organics does not oblige to breed products "organic" and "bio", "eco" on the shelf. At the same time, all these products are equated with organics abroad, they are synonyms there, all such products are certified. That is, bio-yogurt in Spain is an organic product. And the same bio-yogurt, released by the same international corporation for Russia, is inorganic.

 - Perhaps, it is necessary to regulate this moment by law in Russia as well?

 - I think so. Gotta be honest. It is necessary that at least these three terms - "organic", "bio", "eco" - be equated with each other, so that they are subject to equally strict requirements adopted in organics.

And what can we say about an incomprehensible product labeled "farm"! After all, in fact, this means just small-scale production. But this does not mean at all that "farm" milk or meat is cleaner than another. It is sometimes even worse in quality than an ordinary industrial product. Because a large farm has norms for how much hormonal drugs or antibiotics can be used. And when there are several cows in a private household, no one controls you, the farmer can use any additives, hormones, chemicals, antibiotics. Therefore, the prefixes "farm", "natural" - this is about nothing. It's time to debunk the myth of "useful farm products".

We are talking about the importance of state support for organic production. Of course, any subsidies are good. But what is more important now is not production, but sales. The consumer is willing to pay more for healthy food, but this premium goes the wrong way. If we could direct this allowance to organics, then this is the best thing that can be done for organic agriculture. The sales market will simply increase, which will push for the development of production. And it will be much more money than a state subsidy per liter of milk or a hectare of land. Buyers are those people who already pay a premium - so let them pay it for a real result, and not for marketing tricks. Educational and legislative work should go in this direction.

- What are your main strategic goals in the development of the AgriVolga holding and organics in Russia as a whole? What would you like to achieve - in the horizon of 5-7 years and in the longer term?

 - We set goals not only in organics, but also in general in the dairy sector, in the quality dairy business. We want to develop further. We think we have a strong team. The Russian consumer deserves the highest quality products. I would strive with all my might to replace mass-produced products with quality ones. It's interesting, and it makes sense from a financial point of view.