The Ministry of Agriculture quarreled with Danone
Danone demands satisfaction from the Russian Ministry of Agriculture. Representatives of the Ministry say that acquisitions against multinational dairy companies are justified.
Earlier Russian Minister of Agriculture Nikolay Fyodorov in a public statement accused two biggest food companies – Danone and PepsiCo (Vimm-Bill-Dann) – of products counterfeiting and infliction of harm to Russian milk producers. Within a meeting in Omsk the Minister said the processors supply to the consumer substitutes made of vegetable oils instead of quality products.
The Ministry though denies the fact that Mr. Fyodorov gave concrete names of the multinational companies, however it considers the critics towards Danone and PepsiCo to be fair. According to Vladimir Labinov, head of the Department of Animal Husbandry and Breeding at Russian Ministry of Agriculture, after Danone and Unimilk’s merger and PepsiCo’s acquisition of Vimm-Bill-Dann the Ministry of Agriculture fixes decline of raw milk purchase by factories integrated into the structure of the mentioned above companies in a number of Russian regions.
