Page 53 - bneMag bne_December 2020_20201201

bne December 2020 Eastern Europe I 53
The other part of the package is nutrition. Russians do have a bad diet even if they value natural foods and after the age of 45 Russian men have
a 55% higher chance of falling prey to diabetes or cardiovascular disease, as they eat too much fat and sugar, says Shifrina. Another study found that 90% of Russian women are not getting enough protein and 85% take in less iron than they should. So BioFoodLabs has added these elements to their products that
are popular with women. Likewise, the company is producing a snack bar aimed at children that is gluten- and sugar-free. These have been a big hit with mothers in the Scandinavian countries, where there is no similar product on the market.
Innovations like these, combined with the high quality and pleasant taste, plus the competitive advantages from the devalued ruble, mean that BioFoodLabs is already exporting 10% of its production to other nearby EU countries. Shifrina says the export part of the business is expected to continue growing steadily, but she is still busy building
up the product lines and filling out the corners of the Russian market.
“When we launched we conceived of the Bite bars as a premium product, but we have found that they sell just as well in the regions and not just in the richer, urban markets of Moscow and St Petersburg. You can find Bite bars all over the country now,” says Shifrina.
BioFoodLabs has ticked a lot of boxes that match the changing Russian eating habits and the new- found interest in living a healthy lifestyle that has been emerging for many years already; gym club membership seems to be de rigueur amongst most young urbanites in Russia these days and vodka gave way to beer and wine several
years ago as the most popular alcoholic drinks.
The success and fast growth of BioFoodLabs has already piqued the interest of the multinational food producing giants. Shifrina had calls from and took meetings with the likes of Mars and Nestle, but says she doesn't have much interest in selling out to
a strategic company in the short term.
“We have a lot of growing left to do. We are nowhere near finished,” says Shifrina. “But eventually I would like to IPO. That is my dream.”
Rural Russians are moving to cities to escape the impoverished regions
James C Pearce in Moscow
The coronavirus (COVID-19) story in most of Russia’s regions is bleak. At the start of November, the regions saw a 40% increase in cases and are all experiencing a shortage of doctors, according to the Kremlin.
Kaliningrad’s number of infections is now higher than it was in spring. Many hospitals in Novosibirsk are refusing to admit patients with other illnesses or perform non-urgent medical procedures. St Petersburg has around 600 hospital admissions per day, and one town in the Arkhangelsk region has patients staying on benches. A healthcare worker in
Kemerovskaya Oblast died of COVID-19 after being vaccinated, and at least three more medics in Siberia have contracted the virus since receiving
the vaccination as well.
Russia’s regions are coming under increasing pressure that is made being worse as they are also running out
of money. Most regions were already running fiscal deficits and now face a debt increase of 125%. Khakassia and Mordovia have already been taken under the Financial Ministry’s manual control, while Ingushetia in the south-east is already on the verge of bankruptcy.
Russia’s regions cannot afford another lockdown, yet neither can most of their people. Reporting from that small town in the Arkhangelsk Region, the BBC found that its ambulance drivers take home just $400 a month: barely enough to make ends meet, and savings were already badly eaten into during the last lockdown.
Romir estimates just under half of Russians now spend most of their income on food (up from 30% in 2016). The average salary earned in August 2020 was RUB47,648 ($623). The average salary in the Golden Ring city
www.bne.eu