Lay's potato potato suppliers have completed their spring sowing campaign. In this agricultural season, sowing took place on an area of about 19 thousand hectares (11% more than in 2020), more than 70 farms from 18 regions of Russia, as well as from Kazakhstan, will grow potatoes for PepsiCo. The company plans to collect and process more than 500 thousand tons of the crop in 2021 (in 2020 this figure was about 470 thousand tons) for two PepsiCo factories for the production of chips, which are located in the Moscow (Kashira) and Rostov (Azov) regions. Last year, PepsiCo began construction of a snack production plant in Novosibirsk; investments in it will amount to more than 12 billion rubles. At the end of the summer of 2021, it is planned to launch a potato warehouse with a capacity of about 50 thousand tons, which will immediately accept the harvest from local farmers for storage for further processing after the launch of production lines.
This year, most regions have had a cold and rainy spring, and the planting season has shifted by 1-2 weeks. However, due to the fact that the company's suppliers are actively using advanced growing technologies, harvest is expected on time.
For example, in the Krasnodar Territory, to obtain an early harvest for the last five years, agricultural producers have been using non-woven covering material, which allows them to get early shoots and harvest 10 days earlier than when grown using standard technology. Agro-managers of PepsiCo first got acquainted with this technology in Germany and implemented it among Russian suppliers. This year, a similar technology is used on 50 hectares of land. Such a covering material is used for 2-3 years, after which it is processed into secondary raw materials, which avoids waste from its use in farms.
In Astrakhan, one of the agricultural producers uses an alternative technology - germination of potatoes before planting and further planting of tubers with sprouts with specialized equipment.
Some of PepsiCo's suppliers are using spring planting of potatoes in fall-created land ridges, which speeds up spring planting by warming up the ridges early in risky farming areas. This technology is already used by about 20% of all the areas used by PepsiCo partners for growing potatoes.
All the methods and technologies used make it possible to obtain a high yield of potatoes. The company has been working with potato suppliers since 1996, implementing best practices to increase yields and conserve natural resources. Among the measures used in working with suppliers: long-term contracts and advances for the future harvest; assistance in purchasing the necessary agricultural machinery; investments in modern vegetable storages, allowing to preserve the harvest and minimize losses; providing partners with high-quality seed material and localization of the seed base (since 2018, seed material has been almost completely grown in Russia), consulting support of suppliers by our own team of field agronomists who have received serious theoretical and practical training in Russia and abroad.
In April 2021, PepsiCo announced that by 2030, PepsiCo + plans to implement sustainable farming practices on nearly 3 million hectares used by its suppliers around the world. Thanks to these measures, the company plans to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by at least 10 million tons in 3 years. PepsiCo will also source 100% of agricultural raw materials from responsible sources and is committed to supporting more than 250 people in the agricultural sector around the world.
In Russia, 100% of raw materials for the production of potato chips are already certified under the sustainable farming program. Among the Russian suppliers of raw materials, the company promotes the practice of regenerative agriculture, aimed at respecting the soil (for example, by changing the crop rotation), using "green" fertilizers. The company is researching and implementing the smart CropTrack irrigation management solution in potato farms to conserve water resources. In just 15 years, the company has invested over $ 50 million in the Agroindustry Leaders Supplier Development Program.