EkoNiva aims to finish cheese plant in Novosibirsk Region in early 2026 - authorities

NOVOSIBIRSK. Oct 18 (Interfax) - EkoNiva Group, Russia's largest raw milk producer, expects to finish building a cheese plant in Novosibirsk Region in January 2026, the regional Agriculture Ministry told Interfax.

"Construction and installation work is underway. The planned timeframe for completing construction is by January 30, 2026. Difficulties in the implementation of the project are related to its cost - it is being financed with the investor's own funds," the ministry said.

The cost of the project, which was announced in 2017, was initially estimated at 20.9 billion rubles, but later rose to 25 billion rubles.

The plant, which is being built in the Maslyaninsky district in the southern part of Novosibirsk Region, will process 420,000 tonnes of milk per year, or 1,150 tonnes per day. Once it opens, the region will be able to locally process all the milk it produces.

The regional director for Siberia at EkoNiva division Sibirskaya Niva LLC, Sergei Lyakhov told Interfax in 2019 that the plant was scheduled to open at the end of 2021. The group's own farms will supply the milk for the plant. Once reaching full capacity, the plant was expected to use 1,000 tonnes of milk per day to produce cheese and the rest to make whole milk and fermented milk products.

Novosibirsk Region Governor Andrei Travnikov said in November 2022 that the project to build the plant had been suspended "on the initiative of the financing organization, Russian Agricultural Bank." However, in 2023 he said construction had resumed.

The deputy chairman of the regional government and its agriculture minister, Andrei Shindelov said in July 2024 that cheese production at the plant was scheduled to begin at the end of 2025.