EkoNiva offers best milk

Vologda hosted the first independent qualitycontest of dairy products.
The event was organised by the DairyNews within the framework of the 2nd Russian Forum ‘Vologda — the dairy capital of Russia’.

The expert jury had to evaluate 68 items by 24 producers. World renowned chefs and restaurateurs from Russia and France blind tasted dairy products to determine the best producers. The jury members were won over by the excellent and natural flavour of EKONIVA pasteurised milk 3.2%.

‘It is chefs who have the best knowledge of proper organoleptic qualities of dairy products and production process’, says Mikhail Mishchenko, Dairy Market Centre Director, ‘and therefore they are the most credible experts for us and consumers.’

The jury panel included Michel Rostang, the chef and owner of a restaurant with 2 Michelin stars; Aleksey Vinogradov, the official chef of the Russian Olympic team and the two-time Russian culinary competition supreme champion; Oleg Barinskiy, a major restaurateur of Vologda oblast and Leonid Grabar, the Vice-President of the Federation of restaurateurs and hoteliers of Russia.

‘The flavour of any dish directly depends on the engredient quality’, states Leonid Grabar. ‘Natural, valuable components and excellent taste are of essential importance for milk, and I am delighted to praise our contesters’ products for meeting all these requirements.’

The award proves EKONIVA’s motto: The milk we take pride in. The milk packaging will feature the Golden Clover quality mark from now on.

Vologda people could enjoy diverse and delicious products by EKONIVA at the tasting arranged at the Russian House exhibition centre. One of the event visitors, Lyudmila Buylova, Professor of Vologda State Dairy Farming Academy n.a. Vereshchagin, took a purely professional approach to choosing dairy products for herself and her family and examined the ingredients on the labels very closely before tasting the products.

‘This peach-flavoured yoghurt contains only natural flavours and not their equivalents that are used by many other producers’, points out Lyudmila, ‘so, it is safe to taste it.’

Knowledgeable consumers also noted another advantage of the brand — the vertical integration. According to Svetlana Polyakova, who herself has been working in farming business for many years, one can have no doubts about the product quality if the processor is also the producer of the raw milk.

‘My colleagues and I have once toured EkoNiva’s farms’, says Svetlana. ‘We know that Stefan Duerr’s operations use state-of-the-art technologies and therefore I always choose EKONIVA brand and these awesome natural and delicious products. The brand is bound to become number one!’

The milk is the major product in EkoNiva’s range. Thus, the Golden Clover award is another guarantee of the impeccable quality and integrity of the new brand.’

By Tatyana IGNATENKO