The All-Russian Grain Forum, organized by the Union of Grain Exporters with the support of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation on May 26-28, 2022, has completed its work. The event brought together more than 320 delegates from 160 industry companies representing 24 main grain-producing regions of the country, as well as foreign guests. The plenary session of the forum was opened by the Minister of Agriculture Dmitry Patrushev, who outlined the priorities for the development of the grain industry, measures to support and regulate it. Oksana Lut, First Deputy Head of the Department, also took part in the opening of the forum.
Oleg Radin, President of the Soyuzkrakhmal Association, made a presentation at the forum entitled “New Grain Export Opportunities: Infrastructure, Markets, Processing”. He told the forum participants about the industry of deep grain processing, outlined its development trends and the results of work for 2021. In 2021, traditionally, among native starches, the largest volume of production was corn starch - 240 tons, 624 tons were exported, imports of this starch amounted to 43 tons. Wheat starch produced 335 tons, exports amounted to 4 tons, imports - 349 tons. The production of potato starch amounted to 96 tons, while imports were 487 tons, and 2 tons were exported in 933.
Strategy Partners partner Inna Golfand, in her speech at the All-Russian Grain Forum, also touched upon the problems of the grain deep processing industry. “We ourselves, for example, do not have enough food modified starches (used as a thickener, stabilizer or emulsifier). They will have to be transported through the parallel import mechanism. According to the Soyuzkrakhmal Association of Products of Deep Grain Processing, with domestic production of 62,9 thousand tons of modified starches, imports amounted to 103,5 thousand tons last year, ”Rossiyskaya Gazeta writes following the forum.
“According to Inna Golfand, partner of the consulting company Strategy Partners, in order to implement projects that will replace imports, about 85 billion rubles of investments will be required. And in order to realize the export potential, plus 45 billion rubles of investments. For example, the expert sees great potential in increasing the production of maltodextrin (molasses). Literally over the past few years, Russia has almost completely replaced the import of this valuable ingredient. And last year we exported it to 40 countries, Oleg Radin, President of the Soyuzkrakhmal Association of Grain Deep Processing Enterprises, said at the grain forum. According to Inna Golfand, we supplied maltodextrin, including to unfriendly countries. But now there is interest in the product from Turkey, Iran and other partners, ”the Rossiyskaya Gazeta report says.
“At the same time, out of 62 tons of modified starches produced in Russia, only 941 tons are food modifications. The rest of the domestic production is industrial modified starches. The total volume of imports of modified starches last year amounted to 8 tons, of which about 687 tons are food modifications,” comments Oleg Radin, President of Soyuzkrakhmal.
In the vegetable protein market, the largest export volume is wheat gluten - 53 tons. Despite the rapid increase in the production of lysine sulfate, Russian enterprises do not fully satisfy the domestic market: 558 tons were produced, and 119 tons were imported.
“At the moment, the most attractive niches for investors in the field of deep grain processing are the production of modified starches, amino acids and vitamins,” concludes Oleg Radin.