Russian farmers will supply PepsiCo this season with about 470 thousand tonnes of potato chips, which is 10% more than last year.
Potatoes for Lay's chips are grown by more than 50 PepsiCo agricultural partners in 15 regions - Astrakhan, Bryansk, Vladimir, Volgograd, Voronezh, Kursk, Lipetsk, Moscow, Penza, Rostov, Ryazan, Tambov and Tula regions, as well as Stavropol and Krasnodar regions. The total planting area was about 17 thousand hectares. The crop will be supplied to two PepsiCo plants - in Azov (Rostov region) and Kashira (Moscow region). The latter is the largest PepsiCo snack company in the world.
All Lay's products in the Russian Federation are made from potatoes grown in Russia. PepsiCo Inc. (SPB: PEP) began work on switching to local raw materials for chips in 2002, concurrently with the launch of the plant in Kashira. PepsiCo's agricultural program to ensure potato production includes a number of areas - from providing advances to agricultural partners and supplying them with high-quality seed material to conducting training seminars on the introduction of modern agricultural technologies.
The company is currently the largest industrial potato processor in Russia (in 2019 - more than 380 thousand tons). In 2019, PepsiCo announced the construction of a third plant for the production of chips - in the Novosibirsk region. Simultaneously with the construction of the plant, the company will work to develop suppliers of potatoes in Siberia to ensure the supply of raw materials from local farmers.