Milk production in Russia expected to decline over next two years

A decline in Russian milk production for the next two years is being predicted by USDA.

DairyCo reports that a further 2% decline in production in 2015 will follow a 2.1% reduction in 2014.

Import volumes of butter and cheese are not forecast to rise next year, despite the additional pressure this will put on domestic supplies of milk and dairy products following the import ban of August 2014.

There are suggestions that Russian processors will take advantage of the gap left by the import ban to utilise more milk for value added products, although this will not fully compensate for the lost supplies and therefore total domestic consumption will fall.

Only part of the drop in Russia’s liquid milk supply is forecast to be met by increased imports, mostly from neighbouring trade partner Belarus.

Cheese imports are predicted to drop by 37%, or 134,000 tonnes, in 2014. However it is expected that domestic processors will increase cheese production by 20,000 tonnes by 2015, replacing some of the previous import volumes. Forecasts for butter suggest that domestic manufacturers will increase production sufficiently to replace the banned import volumes.