EkoNiva Group's cheese plant receives right to export cheese to China
MOSCOW. June 15 (Interfax) - The cheese plant of EkoNiva Group, located in the Voronezh region, has received permission to export cheeses and other products to China.
The enterprise has passed the relevant audit and all necessary procedures, the company said. The first batch of cheeses will be exported to China in the summer of 2026. The group will establish regular supplies in the future.
EkoNiva's cheese plant is also certified to export products to countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), as well as to Abkhazia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The enterprise produces more than 6 tonnes of cheese per day. Cheese-grade milk is supplied from the group's own farms located in close proximity to the plant.
Cheese is a very promising export product, the founder and president of the group Stefan Durr said in an interview with Interfax. "We plan to export a lot, because the domestic market is oversaturated. China and Southeast Asia are particularly promising destinations," he said.
The company is now completing the construction of a cheese plant in the Maslyanino district of the Novosibirsk region, he said. "More than 35,000 tonnes of semi-hard and hard cheeses will be produced there per year. This will provide a manifold increase to our current production in the Voronezh region," he said.
EkoNiva recalled that its products have been present on the Chinese market since 2020. The group mainly supplies ultra-pasteurized milk of various fat contents from the classic line and the Professional Line, as well as ultra-pasteurized cream with 10% fat content. EkoNiva's dairy products are sold through retail chains in Northeast China, the provinces of Shaanxi, Sichuan, Henan, Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong, and other regions. Online platforms are also used in most regions of China. In 2025, a branded EcoNiva store was opened in Xi'an.
EkoNiva Group was founded in 1994 by entrepreneur Stefan Durr. The group's production enterprises and service zones are present in 13 Russian regions, including in the Voronezh, Kaluga, Kursk, Leningrad, Moscow, Novosibirsk, Orenburg, Ryazan, Samara and Tyumen regions as well as Altai Territory, Bashkortostan and Tatarstan.
The group's main dairy division unites 42 modern livestock complexes, including those under construction. The total livestock population is 251,200 head of cattle, of which approximately 120,100 are dairy cows. In 2025, raw milk production in physical weight increased to 1.45 million tonnes from 1.35 million tonnes in 2024.
Since 2013, EkoNiva has been engaged in milk processing. It manages four processing plants in the Voronezh, Kaluga and Novosibirsk regions.
In addition, the group's enterprises are engaged in pedigree and beef cattle breeding, seed production, crop farming and organic agriculture. The holding is among the largest owners of agricultural land with 648,000 hectares.
