Russian agricultural holding EkoNiva begins exporting dried fat-free milk to Algeria
MOSCOW. March 2 (Interfax) - Russian milk producer EkoNiva Group, which began exporting dried fat-free milk to non-CIS countries in autumn last year, shipped its first batch of the product to Algeria in February.
The company said in a press release that the batch was designated for a local producer of ready-to-eat dairy products. It is now preparing to send another larger batch to Algeria. EkoNiva wrote that it intended to begin exporting to the country regularly.
In early February, the company shipped its second batch of dried fat-free milk to the UAE, to which it first began exports in October last year with a 50-tonne batch of the product. "Our task for the coming months is to arrange regular exports and grow export volumes. We are also in discussions with our partner company on opportunities for exporting dried milk to Qatar and Saudi Arabia," the company said in the press release.
Asked by Interfax about shipping to this region amid military escalations, a company representative said that its work was currently on schedule. "The exports are shipped via ocean transportation and the batches are put together in advance, taking into account a multitude of factors which affect the economic effectiveness of a deal," he said.
Dried fat-free milk is used to produce ice cream, sour cream, curd cheese and yoghurts. It is also one of the basic components in baby foods.
EkoNiva began testing out dried fat-free milk exports in 2023, sending its first batch to Kazakhstan. In 2024, it launched regular exports to Georgia and Armenia. From 2025 onwards, EkoNiva has been working to arrange dried fat-free milk exports to non-CIS countries and intends to open up new supply routes.
EkoNiva Group, founded by entrepreneur Stefan Durr in 1994, has farms and processing plants in 13 Russian regions, including the Voronezh, Kaluga, Kursk, Leningrad, Moscow, Novosibirsk, Orenburg, Ryazan, Samara, and Tyumen regions, as well as in the Altai territory, Bashkortostan and Tatarstan.
The group's main dairy division unites 42 modern livestock complexes, including those under construction. It has over 250,000 head of cattle on average, of which half are forage-fed cows. In 2025, the group produced 1.45 million tonnes of raw milk in physical weight, up 7% from 1.35 million tonnes in 2024. In standard weight, for milk with 3.7% fat and 3.2% protein, the figure grew 11% from 1.44 million tonnes in 2024 to 1.6 million tonnes in 2025.
EkoNiva has also been developing milk processing since 2013, with five processing plants under its management.
The holding also operates in breeding, beef cattle, seed production, crop farming and organic agriculture. It owns 632,400 hectares of farmland, making it one of the largest agricultural landowners.
