In recent years, farming in Russia has been gaining momentum. Natural products have become more affordable, and entrepreneurs have discovered a promising new niche for themselves. However, quite progressive ideas for local business development have their pitfalls. Only industry professionals can explain how organic products are priced and how these products are tested to meet stated standards.
“For many people, the farm seems to be a place with rivers of milk and jelly banks,” says Olga Karpova, founder of the farm “For Svoykh”. - Looking at the beautiful shots from Instagram, people sometimes forget that their economy is, first of all, hellish work and a sea of difficulties. Since childhood, my husband was not indifferent to village delights, but for me, on the contrary, all trips out of town ended in tears. But from an early age I love to cook, bake and receive guests. As a result, two of our weaknesses were embodied in one project - a farm "For friends", which has existed for six years."
For a farm that is a family business without attracting outside investment, this is a fairly long period. After a couple of years, most of these projects in Russia are either closed as economically unprofitable, or modified, deciding to focus on a limited number of products. It is at these moments that founders' enthusiasm ends - and humane goals fade into the background.
A farm is a costly project, and therefore prices for farm products are several times higher than store prices. “Talking about the high cost of final products, people have no idea how many resources are spent on their creation,” explains Olga. - The farm employs ten people, we constantly buy packaging, feed, firewood, hay, we pay for gasoline. The manual production itself is also costly: in order to make 1 kg of cheese, you need 5 liters of milk, and 50 liters of butter is needed for 1 kg of butter. The same products are much cheaper to manufacture on a factory scale, but then there is no need to talk about their usefulness. For example, in large factories, milk is separated in summer, separating the cream and skim base. The cream is frozen and mixed with powdered milk in winter, thus obtaining a normalized milk that can be found on supermarket shelves."
Как ни парадоксально, но именно такой подход ближе многим потребителям. Всему виной привычка всегда получать одинаковый продукт (на ферме вкус и качество молока зависят от многих факторов - начиная с настроения молочницы и заканчивая временем года) и уверенность, что продукт соответствует всем санитарным нормам.
In the case of farm products, Olga advises to personally come to the farms and see how the production process is organized: “Our products do not have the status of organic. This process has not yet been established in Russia. For large companies that, for example, produce household chemicals and purchase raw materials abroad, the procedure for obtaining eco-certificates is more understandable, but it is extremely difficult for farmers to do this. In addition, it is much more important for the end consumer to see everything with his own eyes. To do this, we came up with excursions and farm lunches, during which you can see how the farm functions and ask any questions."
You can verify the reliability of the products by examining certificates from veterinarians on the state of animal health, documents from the sanitary-epidemiological service and a declaration of conformity. If it is important for a person to find out if his chicken contains, for example, antibiotics, it can be taken to a laboratory for macrobiological research.
Nevertheless, some farms strive to ensure that their products receive the coveted "organic" status. Nadezhda Sobolevskaya, the founder of the EkaEzha online store of farm and organic products (Minsk), explains why there are not so many farmers among her suppliers offering organic products: “The procedure for obtaining certificates is very costly and long. Not every farmer can afford it. However, there are daredevils who contact companies from Lithuania and Ukraine that provide certification services. At the same time, very high requirements are imposed on the farmer's economy, which control absolutely all aspects, be it the quality of the land or the labeling of the final product. Every year, the farms are visited by an inspection to check compliance with all standards. The consumer can make sure that the product meets the organic status with the help of specialized resources."
Text: Julia Kozoliy
