The event’s principal sponsor was Elopak, with other sponsors Bericap, ColorMatrix and GualapackGroup.
With the theme ‘Healthy outlook’, the three-day Congress at the Holiday Inn addressed the three priorities of commercial success, good nutrition and sustainable business by focusing on global market and consumer trends, social responsibility, health, innovation and emerging growth opportunities.
Now in its fifth year, the Congress brought together industry leaders, suppliers, customers and analysts for a complete overview of the latest industry developments, trends and innovations from top companies around the world, and provided extensive time for informal networking.
The first day of the Congress began with plant tours to the Piskaryovsky dairy, Wimm-Bill-Dann’s Baltic Milk factory, and to Elopak’s unit in Utkina Zavod.
Piskaryovsky is one of the leading milk processors in the region. Its factory was built in 1966 and is located to the northeast of St Petersburg. Owned by a cooperative of milk producers and manufacturers, it uses only natural ingredients, and its Clover triangle logo is seen as a sign of quality in the local market.
The new Elopak unit is located in the Utkina Zavod production zone in St Petersburg. Covering 10,000 square metres, with potential for a further 5,000 square metre expansion, the plant is under construction and will produce Pure-Pak cartons for fresh and extended shelf life (ESL) products.
Wimm-Bill-Dann’s Baltic Milk factory is one of the largest dairy sites in the northwest of Russia, located in the Parnas area to the east of St Petersburg. It produces a wide range of products, including pasteurised milk, sour cream, kefir, yogurt, ryazhenka, butter and curd under well-known brands such as Chudo, Pastushok, Zdraivery and Vesely Molochnik.
At the end of the day’s plant tours, there was a drinks reception with canapés at the Holiday Inn.
The second day of the Congress began with a regional overview. Silviu Popovich, head of foods division for Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods OJSC, welcomed delegates and provided a profile of the Russian dairy market.
Pavel Isaev, corporate communications director for Unimilk, then gave a presentation called ‘Reshaping the dairy landscape’.
The session closed with Mika Koskinen, regional general director – Russia and CIS for Finland’s Valio, looking at growth and opportunity.
The next session covered ‘Global market development’. The keynote address: ‘Building business and delivering nutrition’, was presented by Kim Small, vice president and general manager global dairy for PepsiCo Inc.
Marc Beck, senior vice president – market development for US Dairy Export Council, then looked at international opportunities from a US perspective.
The session closed with a presentation called ‘Non-dairy companies entering the dairy market: opportunity or threat?’ by Mark Voorbergen, dairy industry specialist at Rabobank.
The next session, called ‘Leading the way with innovation’, gave a chance for two of the event’s sponsors to explain their companies’ activities and innovations.
‘From desire to bottle’ was presented by Luc Vervynck, market application manager – EMEA for ColorMatrix, and ‘Innovation in flexible stand-up pouches’ was presented by Annalisa Nissola, area sales manager – East Europe and Russia for Gualapack.
‘Sustainability in action’ was the subject of the next session, which featured three speakers. First was Claude Steinmetz, director of Luxembourg’s Luxlait, who looked at ‘Developing a sustainable market position’. Next was Richard Taylor, chief marketing officer of Elopak, who discussed ‘Communicating naturalness and sustainability’. Finally, Alexey Pavlov, procurement operations director – Russia, Ukraine & Belarus for Unilever, who looked at ‘Ensuring a sustainable supply chain’.
The final session of the day focused on key markets, and began with a ‘Global market overview and outlook’ by Kevin Bellamy, dairy consulting director at Zenith International. Marc Beck, senior vice president – market development for US Dairy Export Council, then gave a presentation entitled ‘America: the impacts of dairy policy at home and abroad’.
Closing the session was Rupinder Singh Sodhi, MD of Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (AMUL), who talked about ‘India: accelerating growth’.
The first day of the conference ended with a Gala Dinner in the Mirror Hall of the Belosselsky-Belozersky Palace – the former Palace of the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna, a neo-Baroque palace at the intersection of the Fontanka River and Nevsky Prospekt, the city’s main thoroughfare.
During the dinner, the inaugural Zenith Dairy Awards were announced – in recognition of outstanding individual contributions to the world of dairy. The 2011 awards were presented to: Tom Coley, former head of the global dairy strategic business unit for Nestlé SA and Nestlé R&D innovator emeritus in 2010, and Luc Morelon, former senior communications director and external public relations officer for Lactalis Group.
Bill Bruce is group editorial director of FoodBev Media. You can contact him here
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