AAT Malochny Svet has obtained all necessary certificates to export its products to Russia, Iosif Shyshko, director general of the dairy company based in Hrodna, told reporters on Wednesday.
The company has purchased equipment to detect antibiotics in milk and installed the equipment at both its Hrodna processing plant and the farms that supply raw material, Mr. Shyshko said. According to him, Malochny Svet buys milk from 25 farms in the Hrodna region, daily processes 460 tons, and exports its products to the Russian cities of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhniy Novgorod, Smolensk and Khabarovsk, as well as to Moldova, Ukraine and some other countries.
In the first half of 2009, the company’s output increased by 35.4 percent year-on-year in terms of price and by six percent in terms of volume, totaling 21,900 tons, including 5,000 tons of cheese, 965 tons of butter and 842 tons of ice-cream, Mr. Shyshko said.
The company’s exports in the period amounted to 8,200 tons, a five-percent year-on-year increase, he noted. The Hrodna Dairy Plant was put into operation in 1938. It was transformed into a stock company called AAT Hrodna Malkambinat in 1996 and was renamed AAT Malochny Svet in 2007. The company has butter and cheese subsidiaries in Berastavitsa and Skidal, and runs an agricultural farm, hog farms and a mineral water and soft drinks bottling plant. It currently employs more than 1000 staff.
The city government holds 22 percent in the company, with individuals and farming companies being the other stockholders.
