PepsiCo is concerned about the record high prices for raw milk in Russia
According to Silviu Popovici, the Managing Director PepsiCo in Russia, in spite of the summer, the prices have already increased by 20%, and that is fraught with slowdown of the dairy consumption growth in the country. He said that usually the milk prices go down during the summer-spring period because of the milk production increase. But now, due to the decrease of the national dairy herd, milk production volume had dropped by 5-6%, while the consumption has grown by 5-8%. These factors have caused misbalance and raw milk prices rose. Dairy processors already have to increase food prices, though "not so significantly, comparing to the growth of the raw milk prices" - pointed Silviu Popovici. "Wimm-Billl-Dann", among others, increased selling prices of its products by 3-5%. "Processing companies will create milk stocks for the autumn period, but due to the record high milk price the margin will be reduced.
If the trend of rising milk prices continues, it may slowdown the growth of the dairy market, believes Mr. Popovici. He reminded, that due to the milk prices growth in 2007 and 2010, the market dropped by 3% a year.