EkoNiva Group has joined the Siberian Agricultural Week 2022, the largest industry-specific trade fair beyond the Urals, held on the premises of Novosibirsk Expo Centre. The holding has been a regular participant in the event for 15 years now. This time, it has welcomed about a thousand attendees at its booths, concluded several major business deals and reached new cooperation agreements.

At the Siberian Agricultural Week, EkoNiva presented its entire product portfolio: from high-yielding field crop seeds, pedigree cattle, natural dairy made from the milk produced on its own farms to state-of-the-art agricultural machinery of domestic and global brands. The company's specialists elaborated on the current market trends in the farming sector, summed up the results of the past agricultural season and worked out new plans.

Novelties from EkoNiva-Tekhnika

EkoNiva successfully undertakes its activities in the regions of the Siberian Federal District. The dealership’s machinery operates on one in two enterprises here, more than 500 local farmers opt for high‑yielding seeds from the holding’s portfolio every year, and the cattle sales to partners beyond the Urals are also growing.

‘We have made it a tradition to participate in this event transforming our booth from year to year, so that it captures more and more attention – this year, for example, over 600 guests and exhibitors have visited it. Our cooperation geography is constantly expanding – we have had business meetings with clients from Perm, Omsk, Tomsk, Kemerovo, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, as well as Altai area, Kazakhstan, Bashkiria and Tatarstan’, says Vasiliy Stepanov, Sales Manager of EkoNivaSibir.

The booth displayed the RUKAS mixing unit and the precision dosing machine for plant protection agents manufactured by NAGRO, the Voyager S70 Grégoire Besson plough and the Novacat 351 Alpha Motion RCB PRO mower made by Pöttinger. The machinery of this Austrian company, EkoNiva’s long-time partner, enables the farmers to cover almost all their needs for forage harvesting, tillage and sowing. Besides, the Siberian agricultural producers got to see firsthand the new Chinese tractor Sadin 1604 at the trade fair.

‘One of the most popular brands presented at the booth was NAGRO. Together with the specialists of Nagro-Vostok trading company, we advised clients and demonstrated the KAS 32 solution preparation using a cold technology. Our partners could check out the technical features of the machines and even get a fertiliser sample for analysis and control measurements. NAGRO is an up-and-coming brand in EkoNivaSibir’s portfolio, and its units are a must-have for the machinery fleet of every farmer’, continues Vasiliy Stepanov.

In the course of the Siberian Agricultural Week, the company concluded more than 10 deals, and about 25 contracts are under discussion and will shortly be signed. Next year, the company’s blueprint is to supply local farmers with agricultural machines of various brands for a total amount exceeding 3.5 billion rubles.

High-potential seeds

At the trade fair, EkoNiva-Semena presented its extensive field crop seed portfolio helping customers to select high-yielding varieties which are best for the Siberian climate. The most sought-after crops here are wheat, barley, peas and oats. The potential output of EkoNiva’s varieties is significantly higher than that of the competing ones. This season has seen a bumper harvest on the farms of the partner companies: the maximum yield of peas was 6.7 tonnes per hectare, wheat, 8.8 tonnes per hectare, oats, up to 7.5 tonnes per hectare, and barley with good malting properties, over 5 tonnes per hectare.

‘The central focus was on the novelties – Yasmund wheat, which appeared in our portfolio two years ago, Formula 1 and Yevgeniya barley varieties. But our main flagship is the in-house bred soya bean variety EN Argument developed specifically for the Siberian region. Its yield potential exceeds 2.5 tonnes per hectare, and the protein content is 42.5%’, says Aleksandr Suntsov, Senior Sales Representative of EkoNiva-Semena.

In six years, the company has managed to boost its sales to Siberian enterprises greatly – from about a thousand tonnes of seeds to over thirty thousand.

Fruitful year for pedigree cattle breeding

Siberian farmers had a chance to see the true value of the high genetic potential of EkoNiva’s pedigree dairy cattle.

‘The growth of our herd size is driven by such factors as the use of sexed semen, overall good reproduction and high calf survivability. Our heifers are gaining in popularity, so we keep boosting the sales’, emphasises Pavel Chernyshov, Pedigree Cattle Sales Manager, EkoNiva-APK Holding.

As part of the Siberian Agricultural Week, the Power of Siberia 2022 pedigree cattle exhibition took place, where everyone could see and evaluate the exterior of the company's animals. Sibirskaya Niva demonstrated Aberdeen-Angus, Hereford and Holstein breeds. Following the exhibition, the company gained second place among Holstein cows and third among specialised beef sires. Mikhail Matyushin, an employee of Sibirskaya Niva, was awarded a first-degree diploma in the Best Breeder category. In addition, Andrey Travnikov, Novosibirsk Oblast Governor, presented the company with an appreciation letter and announced it to be the best agricultural enterprise with the revenue of over one billion rubles.

Region of strategic importance

EkoNiva-Food debuted its own booth at the Siberian Agricultural Week. The visitors could have a look at the full range of the branded dairy products, including cheeses and EkoNiva Professional Line milk specially designed for the HoReCa industry. There was a tasting session of the entire product line, and a professional barista even made milk-based drinks for the attendees.

As part of the trade fair, EkoNiva-Food had key meetings with distributors and partners. Siberia is currently one of the most significant regions for the company: it is here, in Novosibirsk oblast, that the Group has been implementing its largest investment project – a processing plant with a capacity of 1,150 tonnes of raw milk per day.

The launch of the enterprise will create over 400 jobs and provide local residents with high-quality dairy products. In addition to whole-milk and fermented-milk products, plans are afoot to produce up to 35,200 tonnes of semi-hard and hard cheeses per year, which is about 100 tonnes per day. Part of this volume is to be sold to foreign markets, including China, where EkoNiva has been supplying dairy since 2020.

The project also provides for the construction of a facility for producing cheese whey powder with a degree of demineralisation of 90% – known as Demi 90 – with a capacity of up to 15,840 tonnes per year. Demi 90 is the main ingredient for baby food, including breast milk substitutes, which makes this project second to none on the Russian market in terms of scale and relevance.