A whole leg of jamon and a tabris supermarket. Jamon - how to cook this dry-cured pork ham What prevents the Russian manufacturer

23.02.2023

The image of each country carries some set of stereotypes by which others unmistakably recognize it. Bear Vodka Balalaika. Beer - sausages - cabbage. Bullfight - football - jamon.
Today we have Jamon, Spain.

It is believed that the production of jamon on the Iberian Peninsula was born in the shaggy centuries, as the only way to preserve pork in a hot climate in the absence of refrigerators, and also given the many months of sea travel, the once mistress of the seas.

Taking into account the mountainous climate of certain regions of Spain, where winter temperatures and natural humidity coincide with those required for salting, drying and curing pork, God himself ordered to produce this delicious, saturated with all the necessary vitamins and minerals, compact product.
We managed to arrange a visit to a factory that produces jamon and sausages in the La Rioja region in the town of Baños de Río Tobía.

The Martínez Somalo factory has existed since 1900 and continues to be a family business, now in its fourth generation.
In general, it is interesting that in a small town with a population of about 2000 people, there are 5 large-scale production of sausages and jamon, which is explained by the ideal location in a ravine between two mountains, where the climate is ideal for aging this delicious product.

Here is the list produced by Martínez Somalo:
CHORIZO SARTA EXTRA
CHORIZO SARTA 100% NATURAL DULCE Y PICANTE
LA GLORIA RIOJANA
CHORIZO SARTA IGP RIOJANO
CHORIZO EXTRA GRAN VELA
CHORIZO BARBACOA DULCE Y PICANTE
CHORIZO SEMICULAR 100% NATURAL
SALCHICHÓN SARTA
SALCHICHÓN SEMICULAR
LOMO EMBUCHADO EXTRA DUROC
JAMÓN SERRANO
JAMÓN PIMENTONADO
CHORIZO SARTA IGP RIOJANO
CHORIZO CON VINO 110
Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, we were not allowed to photograph the process of cutting carcasses and working with raw materials, but they showed everything, answered all questions.
The factory is located in an old 6-storey building, where production is located on the lower floors, and the upper ones are equipped with modern chambers for salting and drying. Also, another complex was built outside the city for the final aging of jamon and shipment of products.

sausages
Traditionally in Spain, the main spice added to sausages is red pepper of various varieties. According to the technologist, pepper is an excellent natural preservative and antioxidant, which creates the authenticity of the recipe.
Of course, being an experienced homemade sausage maker, I did not fail to squint and ask about the use of nitrites, flavor enhancers and other chemicals. Moreover, it is easy to check this: according to EU laws, all additives must be indicated on the packaging.

The technologist happily revealed all the recipes, which boiled down to the basic one:
Meat, red pepper (various), garlic, salt. There is a variety of sausage with the addition of 9% red wine.
For salting jamon, the prescribed amount of sodium nitrite is used.

After stuffing, the sausages are placed in a chamber where they dry at a temperature of +3 to +17 and a humidity of 80 to 63%, while drying, reducing the humidity and raising the temperature. With a loss of 28-35% of the weight, the sausage is ready and goes to the consumer.

Jamon
Of course now everything is automated in the factory. It’s fun to watch how huge pig legs pass along the conveyor, fall into a drum, where they crumble in nitrite salt, each is weighed, marked and placed in a box for a hundred legs, sprinkling each row with a lot of salt, after which the boxes are taken to the chamber, where at + 2C legs will be salted according to the classical formula 1kg - 1 day.

Then the salt is washed off the feet and sent to the chamber for salt leveling and drying at +4 +11C for 5-6 months. This is followed by maturation and fermentation of meat +14 +20С 6 - 12 months.

The embargo on the import of European products has been extended for a second and possibly not the last year. "Reedus" decided to find out which of the domestic producers can occupy the market of favorite delicacies.

Jamon

Jamon is a Spanish meat delicacy known far beyond the borders of this country. It is a dry-cured pork ham, which, after salting, is aged for a long time in special conditions.

The history of ham has more than two millennia. The Cantabrian peoples salted pork meat and hung it from the ceiling in cellars. There, the hams “ripened” throughout the winter, acquiring a unique taste and aroma. Dried pork was perfectly stored, it could be transported over long distances, used as food for sailors. The fame of jamon quickly spread throughout the country, and then Europe. In the 18th century, jamon was already being sold through the Spanish colonies on all continents.

In modern Spain, jamon is produced throughout the country, except for the coast. This product has a special quality mark, which confirms that it is made in a certain province in compliance with unchanged local standards. In almost any Spanish restaurant, you can see impressive pork hams hanging from the ceiling, and jamon is also often found in local stores.

Similar meat delicacies are also produced in other countries. For example, in Italy, dry-cured pork ham is called prosciutto. The products have a similar production technology, however, jamon, as a rule, is aged longer.

What is called jamon in Spain was also produced in pre-revolutionary Russia. Moreover, dry-cured meat was even exported, for example, to the UK.
Today in Russia such a product is practically not produced. At least on some serious scale, allowing it to be delivered to stores or even just sold. However, in one of the metropolitan establishments this summer they offered to taste jamon of their own production.

"Friends! Today we officially open our new "Khleb" on Tverskaya 12/str2. Today I will work as a bartender: as a gift to each guest I will pour a glass of Villa Antinori and cut seven-month-old jamon (we did it ourselves, by the way),” writer and businessman Sergey Minaev, who owns the Bread and Wine chain of wine shops and bars, wrote on his Instagram. .

In a commentary to Reedus, Sergey Minaev admitted that in fact the presented product is neither jamon nor its Russian counterpart.

“It was beef jerky aged 8 months. To taste, of course, the difference from jamon is very significant. It turned out such an improved balyk, ”the businessman said.

Dried meat was prepared by the employees of the institution, after which it was served to the guests. The action was of a one-time nature, but in the future it is planned to put the production of delicacies on stream.

“Practically, this can and should be produced in Russia. Both pigs and cows are available. Today we are negotiating with farms in the Moscow region to start growing chicken for our restaurants and curing meat,” Minaev said.

According to him, under guaranteed sales, they will be able to withstand the quality and price. “We hope to complete and launch such a project within a year,” the businessman added.

As it became known to Reedus, a larger production of Russian jamon is planned to be deployed in the Krasnodar Territory. This will be done by the domestic company "Nikolaev and Sons", which managed to make a name for itself in the production of wines, as well as cheeses of French varieties under the brand name "Lefkadia".

“Now I act as a consultant for them to create authentic meat products. A specialist from the Basque Country will help prepare the project for the launch,” Andrei Kuspits, development director of the gastronomic company LeBonGout, told Reedus.

He admits that the process of organizing a production shop will be long. To date, only a paper draft has been completed and financial discussions are underway.

Cheese

With the production of dairy delicacies, the situation looks the best: at the moment in Russia, French and Italian cheeses are produced by at least two enterprises, which can be called relatively large.

The already mentioned company "Nikolaev and Sons" in the Krasnodar Territory produces camembert and buch, and from October it is going to produce brie.

“In our production technology, we adhere to traditional methods and recipes. All processes related to shaping, whey drainage, inoculation, turning are carried out manually by the employees of the cheese factory. Also, a particularly important step is the care work in the process of cheese maturation, which is again carried out manually. And, of course, a French consultant has been advising us on technological processes for 3 years,” the press service of the company assured Reedus.

Today, the company is striving to reach the level of processing four tons of milk per day. Cheese makers admit that they are limited in the accelerated growth process, due to the technological features of production. However, cheeses under the Lefkadia brand can already be seen on the shelves of a number of Russian retail chains.

“The products are also in demand in the HoReCa segment in many regions of the country. For example, in Moscow we are represented in the restaurant chains Jean Jacques, Goodman, Filimonova and Yankel and many others,” the press service added.

What hinders the Russian manufacturer?

90% of Russian citizens did not even notice the embargo on European delicacies: they had neither the desire nor the opportunity to buy these dishes even without sanctions. At least this applies to jamon and foie gras. Nevertheless, premium products have found their regular customers among people with high and middle incomes.

With the imposition of the embargo, Russian cheese makers began to report a sharp increase in demand for their products. Moreover, Europe quickly got its bearings in the situation, starting to supply traditional cheeses to the Russian Federation under the guise of lactose-free products. The gap was eliminated only by the second year of sanctions: now suppliers must receive a specialized state certificate, according to which they will be able to import to the Russian market only lactose-free products for dietary, therapeutic and preventive nutrition. This should prevent traditional low-lactose cheeses from hitting the shelves and spur demand for Russian dairy products. However, whether domestic producers will be able to meet the increased demand is a separate issue.

Another problem in filling the Russian markets with local producers is the pricing policy. Small farms simply cannot sell cheese for a penny: for example, about 2.5 thousand rubles will have to be paid for a kilogram of cheese made in Maslovka.

The situation is similar with Lefkadia cheeses: larger European producers are able to offer a similar product at a much more attractive price. And their products are still available on the market despite the formal elimination of the lactose-free hole.
So in the supermarket "Okay" 270 grams of Camembert from "Lefkadia" will cost 629 rubles. At the same time, a similar product from the Danish food giant ArlaFoods, sold in the same store, costs almost half as much (around 350 rubles for the same 270 grams).

Even if we imagine that all “sanctions” will disappear from online trading platforms and counters of Russian stores, not all gourmets will be able to afford expensive Russian counterparts.

Summing up what has been said, it must be admitted that attempts to produce European delicacies in Russia are being made. Some of them can be called successful, the results of others can only be judged in the future.

In any case, the first year of the embargo for real and potential producers of delicacies did not bring the expected super-benefits: lactose-free products interfered with cheese making, meat producers - long-term storage of foie gras and jamon brought to Russia before the sanctions, and the absence of a ban on the trade in "sanctions" left opportunities to smuggle goods.

If the sanctions wars continue for several more years, and smuggling is completely suppressed, then domestic producers will have real chances for success. With the increase in production, the turnover of the products of Russian companies will also increase, which will reduce prices.

In the meantime, unfortunately, compatriots offer Russians European quality for a very unattractive price. At the same time, authentic European-made goods can always be ordered in an online store: the attempts of the Prosecutor General's Office to block such resources today look ineffective.

Entrepreneur Dmitry Aksyonov talks about the ideology of premium products and the positive effect of sanctions

We have been looking for an entrepreneur for a long time who would say these words: “I will not dissemble, the sanctions have made a positive contribution to the development of my business. The exchange rate is also to our advantage.” And here we have found it. Dmitry Aksyonov, the owner of the Vyalim Myaso online store of deli meats, told Biz360 about how the “Russian jamon” was forged. In this story, there was a place for a smokehouse, an iron casting factory, handicrafts, Sportmaster, Yulmart, and even the Gold Rush program on the Discovery TV channel.

Dmitry Aksenov, 32 years old, owner and director of the company "We dry the meat". Born in the city of Kolchugino, Vladimir Region. Graduated from the Faculty of Mechanics and Technology of Vladimir State University with a degree in Ferrous and Non-Ferrous Metal Foundry. Prior to launching his own business, he worked in the field of marketing, participated in OZON, Sportmaster, Ulmart projects. Married, daughter - two years.

Crisis of my dreams

I come from a small town in the Vladimir region. We lived in our house. My father always kept a large farm: cows, sheep, pigs, chickens. We cured the meat in the cellar. They smoked with hot smoke in a home-made smokehouse made from a 200-liter barrel, and with cold smoke in a bathhouse.

Carcass-smoking of pigs is an ancient method that my father inherited from his father, who inherited from his. It takes place in a bathhouse, the carcasses are hung from the ceiling, the pipe is closed, alder chips are put into the oven, lit, and then the oven door closes tightly and the chips begin to smolder. Smoking lasts from two to five days, depending on the weight of the carcass. Periodically, you need to go into the bathhouse and put wood chips in the oven. The bath then smells of smoked meats for a very long time.

I am a fan of meat, I believe that fangs are given to a person in order to tear pieces of meat. I sincerely do not understand vegans, I will say more - I am afraid of them. I love meat in any form. I love boiled beef with homemade horseradish, lamb kebab, beef stroganoff, aspic. I'm crazy about dry-cured sausages and salami. Well, and, of course, I really love dry-cured meat, which I make myself.

Probably, I have always dreamed of living in my house away from the bustle of the city, like in childhood, smoking sausage and curing meat. In any case, the first step has already been taken.

In 2014, after well-known events, Russia imposed sanctions against European products. There was a lot of noise on the Internet - people were grieving that they would no longer be able to freely buy jamon and cheeses. I decided that since the market niche was empty, it means that I can occupy it. Since I am not as strong in retail trade as in Internet commerce, I chose the appropriate distribution channel.

There is a feeling that the cheese market turned out to be more active than the dried meat market - you constantly hear about small local production. If you look in more detail, most of the local cheese makers produce young cheeses. It doesn't take long to develop the technology. Parmesan - with its ripening period of several years - no one undertakes to release it. It's the same with meat: it's very difficult to work out the technology when you have to wait several months for the results of the experiment.

Long road to meat

After school, I entered the regional university at the "Foundry of ferrous and non-ferrous metals." At the time of my admission, it was the highest paid specialty in our town. By the end of the training, the factory had half collapsed and wages had fallen. However, I do not regret anything - the Soviet school for the training of engineers was not in vain considered one of the strongest in the world. The main thing is that the university taught me to think structurally, to set priorities. The topic of my diploma is "Development of a plan for an iron casting shop with a capacity of 10,000 tons of suitable products per year." The first experience of creating your own enterprise, albeit on paper.

I was invited to the Kaliningrad region to the iron casting plant as a foundry shop technologist. I worked there for a year and a half, having 37 adult men, shop workers, under my command. It was the first experience of managing people - not always successful, but very useful. In 2007 I returned to Vladimir - mainly because of the low salary of an engineer. He got a job as a sales manager, selling help desk services. The experience of direct sales and communication with clients also came in handy in a later career.

In 2009 I moved to live in Moscow. Created and promoted electronic stores, participated in the launch of projects such as ozon.travel And sportmaster.ru. Engaged in Internet marketing: advertising, usability audit, search engine optimization, etc.

In 2010 I created a company "Aksenov PRO", engaged in consulting in the field of e-commerce. This project still exists today. I handed it over to a team of young professionals and have a small percentage of their activities.

Internet marketing is a business with a low barrier to entry. There are a lot of companies that do this. I moved to a higher level and am engaged in project management for business development in general.

First Store

In Moscow, I opened my first online store. The idea of selling goods for needlework was suggested to me by my wife, she also came up with the name Fadeno. The project lasted over a year. Since there was no initial capital, I did everything myself. I received an order, went to a wholesaler, bought goods and sent them to the customer.

At a certain point, I began to understand that the project needed money for serious development. I started looking for investments, got acquainted with the world of funds and business angels. It was then that I learned unit economics (calculation of the economic performance of a startup per client), financial planning and forecasting results.

Five proven tips from Dmitry Aksenov for beginners
about financial planning

Be sure to calculate the economics of one unit of output, whether it is production or sale - it does not matter. You need to understand how much the price of this unit includes the cost of raw materials, advertising, logistics, salaries, rent, loan payments, etc. This is the only way to see if your price is competitive in the market. If not, then your production is inefficient.

There are two types of business - for earning from operating activities and for earning from investments (sales of a business). You need to clearly understand what kind of business you are building, and plan your actions accordingly. Investments come in the hope of rapid growth, and earnings from economic activities, as a rule, do not give rapid growth. Competitors should be divided according to the same principle: companies with a large investment wallet can work in the red for a long time, capturing the market. Trying to compete with them on price means ruining your business.

In business, as nowhere else, the rule “for one beaten two unbeaten gives”. It's rare that someone manages to open a cool business on the first try. You need to gain experience and regard each attempt as a step towards the top.

There are no identical companies. You can’t look at competitors and try to make everything a blueprint, like they do. They are already on the market, they have a brand, customer loyalty. If you don't offer something new, don't even start.

Do not be deceived by the low threshold for entering the business. The market with a low threshold is the most difficult, as the competition here is very high. The threshold for entry means not only start-up capital, but also your competencies: if you do something better than others, go for it.

After digesting the information received, I realized that with a product such as needlework - or rather, its low margin - with an increase in turnover, there will be no increase in profits. Associated costs will eat up all the proceeds.

The bulk of stores in this segment are very small retail outlets with a turnover of up to 200 thousand rubles per month. Major players have their own developed trading networks. The main turnover is embroidery kits: the wholesale price is 1-2 thousand rubles, the margin is 50%, which is approximately equal to the cost of advertising and delivery.

Fadeno opened in 2012 and closed in 2014. I entered this business with almost no investment, and left without a profit. A zero declaration was submitted to the tax office. The project has been closed. I got good experience.

Moving to Petersburg

The next point on my life path was St. Petersburg, where I took a good position as Marketing Director in the company Topbrands. The company specialized in high fashion. Thanks to her, I understood what a product for a premium buyer should be like.

The premium segment is working with a sophisticated client. Unlike the mass market, you cannot compete with price here, the main tools are the quality of service and a “beautiful story”. Buying a premium product, the client wants to satisfy their emotional needs first of all. For example, sausage should not just be tasty. Premium sausage is a guarantee of high quality, exclusive, service and limited edition. So the client feels his chosenness.

For example, if the client does not like the quality of the product, I guarantee a refund - we write about this on the site. Never before has this happened. But I think it gives customers confidence.

From Topbrands I left in the midst of a crisis and sanctions. The owners and I had different views on how to act and develop in difficult times. All in all, it was a mutual decision.

Finally, about meat

So, in 2014, people realized that they were losing jamon and cheeses. Personally, the lack of European products did not affect me much. I found a replacement very quickly. Russian manufacturers make very tasty cheeses - for example, I like farm-cheese factory "Village". I decided to make meat products myself.

There is a feeling that the cheese market turned out to be more active than the market for deli meats - here and there you can hear about small local cheese dairies. But look carefully: most of them are produced by young cheeses, since it does not take much time to develop the technology. Parmesan, with its ripening period of several years, no one is in a hurry to release it. The same with meat: it is very difficult to work out the technology when you have to wait several months for the result of the experiment.

After the introduction of sanctions, we have almost no dried meat “like in Europe”. In Russia, they traditionally dried venison, horse meat, hunting products, and not pork with beef.

Dried meat is a ready-to-eat product without heat treatment. Excess moisture is removed during the ripening of meat in the fresh air. The ripening time depends on many factors, the process can take from one month to several years.

Now we produce several types of products with the so-called short-term aging (from 30 days) - this is lumpy dry-cured meat. Unlike jamon and prosciutto, where the whole ham is used, we dry-cured pieces weighing 2-3 kilograms. The reason is in time: the drying time of the ham is a year.

Dry-cured meat is a long-term storage product. I can’t reveal all the secrets, but thanks to the salting technology, it has a characteristic taste and does not deteriorate for a long time (4 months in a vacuum). The most important thing here is not to oversalt the meat. We do not use artificial ingredients: only natural salt and natural spices. The technology allows them to soak into the product, retaining the right amount of moisture. Simply put, our meat is moderately salty, moderately soft, moderately tender and moderately dried.

Quality in this business is not empty words. The end customer of our products is, first of all, a gourmet. A non-poor person who seeks variety in his diet.

Of course, we have competitors - this is the market. The winner will be the one who provides the maximum number of benefits: product quality, level of service. We set ourselves the goal of meeting the level of the best manufacturers in Europe. Here they say: jamon. But jamon is a very broad concept. In Spain, there are a huge number of ham producers, and the quality of this meat is very different. The same applies to prosciutto in Italy.

observation pipe

The Vyalim Myaso project started in November 2014. I was making an online store and at the same time writing a business concept. The name, the logo is also my work. I didn't have any associates. I will say more - none of my acquaintances believed in this idea at first: food production is associated with a large number of bureaucratic obstacles, and the demand for this type of product was called into question.

For food production in Russia, you need:

Documents giving the right to engage in entrepreneurial activities (enough IP);

Declaration of conformity with the requirements of the technical regulations of the Customs Union (TR CU);

STO - organization standard: a document regulating the entire production cycle;

Veterinary certificates - for the sale of products in shops and restaurants;

Certificate of production from Rospotrebnadzor.

Rumors about bureaucratic obstacles roughly corresponded to reality. It is very difficult to collect the entire list of documents needed to launch a meat workshop, especially difficult to cope with the greed of veterinarians.

Food production in Russia is controlled by several departments at once - the Ministry of Agriculture, Rospotrebnadzor, Vetnadzor. Each of them makes its own changes to the laws, issues explanations and letters that can easily contradict each other. For example, the veterinary station is trying to impose its own veterinarian on our staff, although we are not obliged to do this by the basic law.

Enterprise economy

The initial capital of the enterprise was 800 thousand rubles of my personal savings. This money was used to rent the premises (40 thousand per month), prepare it for the requirements of Rospotrebnadzor (180 thousand rubles), purchase equipment (refrigerators, tables, racks, packaging equipment - only 400 thousand rubles).

In the end, we still didn’t have enough money, so we worked with the first wholesale customers on a prepaid and pre-order basis: we received payment for a batch of goods, made them, and only after that shipped them.

I rented a room for a workshop in the village of Enkolovo, Leningrad Region. To be more precise, in the former general store. There was even an idea to work in a traditional hut, but the officials did not allow it. Enkolovo is well located: relatively far from busy highways and large industries, while being only 34 km from St. Petersburg.

Up to 70% of the cost of production falls on the cost of raw materials (meat loses 40% of its original mass during the cooking process). 30% is logistics, salaries and social benefits, salt, spices, equipment depreciation, taxes (we are on the simplified tax system).

We deliver orders to wholesalers at our own expense. Retail buyers formally pay for the services of EMS Russian Post - 300 rubles. In fact, the minimum cost of EMS delivery is 450 rubles from St. Petersburg to Moscow, to other cities it is more expensive. These 300 rubles are rather a confirmation of the seriousness of the buyer's intentions. Now we will introduce online payment, and delivery will be free.

For understanding: the cost of preparing a kilogram of dry-cured beef is about 1000 rubles, the retail price is 2200.

Retail prices for Vyalim Myaso products

Dried pork "Like Jamon" - 900 rubles per 0.5 kg.

Dried beef "Filet Mignon" - 1200 rubles per 0.5 kg.

Dried pork ham - 2300 rubles per 0.5 kg.

Salchichon (dried sausage) - 1300 rubles per 0.5 kg.

We sell about half a ton of finished products per month. Initially, when calculating the concept, this is how I imagined the balance of sales: 40% - shops, 40% - HoReCa (restaurants, catering), 20% - retail. Today orders from retail customers account for 10% of the total, the rest is B2B. Most of the sales (up to 90%) come from dried pork “Kak Hamon” and dried beef “Filet Mignon”. These are our main products, we promote them.

Shops and restaurants sell goods cheaper than the retail price by 20-50%. How accurate it is depends on many factors: payment terms, volume of purchases, willingness to wait for an order for several weeks. In addition, dry-cured pork neck (Coppa) is currently available only for wholesalers (900 rubles/kg).

We have not reached self-sufficiency yet, all profits are invested in development. We continue to purchase equipment - we need a more productive vacuum sealer, a cutting machine. The packaging needs to be updated. I really need my own transport - I just calculate the leasing costs for it.

Theoretically, we can produce 1.5-2 tons of products per month, but we do not do it - there is no working capital for such production volumes.

Farmers without acorns

My meat suppliers are farms from the Vladimir and Voronezh regions. I met them a long time ago, even before I started this business. I personally don’t go to select products - I make a request for certain parts of the carcasses, if the farmer is ready to supply the required volume, we pick it up.

At the same time, I am looking for new suppliers so as not to be dependent. There is an opinion that in the Leningrad region there is little good - environmentally friendly - meat. This is a matter of psychology - someone else always seems better, in other areas the air is cleaner and the grass is greener.

In Russia, there is enough quality meat, another question is that farms are not ready to provide a decent level of service. For example, I only need certain parts of the carcasses, and farmers offer to take the whole carcasses, it’s more convenient for them.

Not all meat is suitable for curing. High moisture content is unacceptable, otherwise the meat will dry out more. Grain-fed beef is better than mixed-fed beef. Pork carbonate must have certain proportions in terms of the thickness of the fat layer and meat. In our latitudes, there are no pigs fed on acorns, so farmers achieve similar results on domestic raw materials - beets, apples, grain.

Sea salt is brought to us from Finland in bags of 50 kg. Cost - 35 rubles. per kg. We use Russian-made spices. It is mainly paprika, dried garlic, ground black pepper, thyme, rosemary and juniper berries.

Influencing factors

A distinctive feature of our business is that the production cycle takes at least 30 days. This is the time it takes for the meat to mature. During periods of the highest excitement - such as, for example, was before the New Year - we ask customers to wait. The most loyal customers place an order in advance and receive good bonuses for this.

From my experience in the premium segment, I realized that it is impossible to force a client to purchase additional options and make money on it. You can't say the price of a product and then say, "This is for a kilogram of pork that we'll bring in two weeks, provided you pay for the order today."

We set the maximum price for the product - and the client receives the best conditions. But if he wants it cheaper, then we can postpone the delivery for two weeks (10% discount), we can ask for an advance payment (another 10% discount), and so on.

I rethought many things in customer relations thanks to the advice of such a “business whale” as Dmitry Kostygin (co-owner of Ulmart, Rive Gauche, Rainbow Smiles and other companies - editorial note). He periodically gives lectures for employees of his companies - we met at one of them. The main thesis is that a loyalty program should not be a one-sided tool, it is, first of all, an agreement on the terms of cooperation. That is, the client should not receive a discount for being just a client. It is necessary to agree with the client that he can receive special conditions of purchase only in response to certain actions on his part.

In addition, there is seasonality in our business - in the summer, customers move out of town, which means that we also need to negotiate with stores in the area where they are located. For example, there is a holiday village, and in it there is a farm products store. In winter, there is no demand for our meat in this store, it appears with the advent of the summer season. And vice versa, there is a store in a respectable area with which we cooperate - with the onset of the summer season, demand in it drops sharply, as customers move out of town.

Thoughts on the future

At the very beginning, I was inspired by the idea. I never doubted for a second that as soon as I launch the site, trading will immediately begin. In addition to rose-colored glasses, there was bad planning: I just didn’t have enough money for advertising and important little things like packaging design. There was not enough money for the packaging itself. Printers make individual packaging only in large quantities, and this is expensive.

In the absence of a budget, we gave advertising only on Facebook - the effect of it remained indistinct. We are looking for B2B clients personally - we contact shops and restaurants, we offer our products. Alas, we cannot work with the largest clients yet, as we are not able to provide the necessary volumes of production.

The project needs to be developed, and I see two ways. The first is slow development without attracting outside capital. The problem with this development is that we cannot start working with the largest wholesalers right now. The second is attracting investments and accelerated development, rapid development of the market, access to retail chains. Naturally, the second method is preferable.

Again, the main difficulty is the production cycle. We cannot quickly meet the growing demand. In order to always have large stocks of finished products, we do not have enough working capital. In order to reach a turnover that can satisfy demand, we need investments in the region of 5 million rubles. In general, I am ready to give 40% of the business to potential partners.

... I am very motivated by the books of Yitzhak Adizes and the series of programs "Gold Rush" on the Discovery TV channel. When you see how people work in Alaska, you understand that your problems are not such problems compared to the situation when the wheel of a single tractor fell off, and the nearest settlement is 500 kilometers away.

As for the assortment, this year we are going to expand the product line with traditional prosciutto and bresaola (aging period is about a year). In addition, we are preparing to release a new type of product - it is still unnamed - with pickling in a marinade based on red wine. In the distant plans - the construction of his smokehouse.

I will not dissemble, the sanctions have made a positive contribution to the development of business. The exchange rate is also to our advantage. Competitors who carry the so-called “sanctions” rather depend on it. Russian meat is not much more expensive. But even if sanctions are lifted tomorrow and oil recovers from the fall, our prices will still be much lower than in Europe. We will not diversify our business, but increase it, improving the quality.

I offer a selection of the best Russian products made to replace forbidden delicacies. And how do you feel about Russian analogues of Western products banned by sanctions?

The idea for this post came to me yesterday. Brought me into the community pora_valit where I started a small conversation with a friend mefed47 . He told me that the production of oysters was re-established in the Crimea, which had been considered dead forever for more than a dozen years. Oysters are finicky creatures, they are very sensitive to the environment, they love only clean and calm water.

And now, it turns out that for the resuscitation of the oyster farm, quite a bit was required: to stop dumping all sorts of rubbish in the Black Sea. I do not think that the improvement of the environment is associated with a change in the status of Crimea. Most likely, the fact is that production has ceased to spit on the environment and somehow comply with environmental standards. For example, I wrote a post about Tuapse, where only after the introduction of new hydrotreating systems as part of the modernization, enterprises stopped polluting the sea. Can you imagine what it looked like 20 years ago? The consequences are being eliminated by the new leadership so far, and only by 2014 is the work coming to the final stage.

There are also many production projects in the Crimea, and, apparently, the oysters somehow did not go well before, because the mollusks were mercilessly flooded with chemical waste.

Now the oyster farm has existed in the Crimean village of Katsiveli since 2005. It is located under water on an area of five hectares, three hundred meters from the shore. Only "buoys-beacons" are visible on the surface. Scuba divers harvest at a depth of five meters. In a year it is half a million pieces of oysters and about 60-80 tons of mussels. Pretty good results for just one farm, it will be even better in the future.

The loss of jamon caused a lot of resonance in society. I don’t know how anyone, but speaking personally for myself, I wouldn’t say that I often ate it, but the point is not that. In Krasnodar there is a real "meat king" Takhir Kholikberdiev, who always emphasized his love specifically for Kuban meat. The restaurateur made the delicacy at home in just 8 months and is now trading it.

But if you think about it, then to make spanish ham just:

pork ham - 4-5 kg;

sea salt - 3-5 times the weight of the ham;

Well, hands from the shoulders, of course.

More than the disappearance of the jamón, the news of the foreign cheese made people suffer. Here I can understand the general indignation: all Russian cheese tastes about the same and is only suitable for melting it for meat in French when visiting my grandmother. If you want an exquisite delicate taste, then the choice from a Russian manufacturer tends to zero.

And after all, they made cheese with mold, including in the Kuban somewhere in the 30s of the 20th century. There are more modern examples, the Kuban company "Kaloriya" three years ago began to develop a technology for making cheese with mold like Brie and Camembert. But no matter how boasted of regional achievements, the taste of cheese was far from ideal.

But the monks of the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Valaam Monastery (Lake Ladoga region) will produce cheeses of brands that have come under anti-sanctions. And I have the best expectations about this cheese: the monks took cheese-making courses in Italy and bought equipment there. For example, Father Agapios, who manages the monastery farm, learned how to make five types of cheese: mozzarella, cachotta, morlacco, smoked ricotta and cheese with white mold bianca.

And what examples of the preparation of forbidden delicacies in our country do you know?

In August 2014, Russia imposed a ban on the import of a number of food products from the United States, Australia, Canada and most European countries. Under the embargo, not only products familiar to most Russians, but also expensive delicacies fell.

At the end of June, Moscow extended the sanctions for another year. Thus, Russian farmers and enterprises were once again given the green light to increase and expand production. And if the volumes of traditional products produced in Russia are really growing today, then the situation is different with delicacies: there are still no domestic jamon or foie gras on the shelves of chain supermarkets.

Reedus tried to find out whether Russian producers made attempts on their own to recreate the delicacies that had left the market, and if so, how did they end up.

Jamon

Jamon is a Spanish meat delicacy known far beyond the borders of this country. It is a dry-cured pork ham, which, after salting, is aged for a long time in special conditions.

What is called jamon in Spain was also produced in pre-revolutionary Russia. Moreover, dry-cured meat was even exported, for example, to the UK.

Today in Russia such a product is practically not produced. At least on some serious scale, allowing it to be delivered to stores or even just sold. However, in one of the metropolitan establishments this summer they offered to taste jamon of their own production.

In a commentary to Reedus, Sergey Minaev admitted that in fact the presented product is neither jamon nor its Russian counterpart.

“It was beef jerky aged 8 months. To taste, of course, the difference from jamon is very significant. It turned out such an improved balyk, ”the businessman said.

According to him, under guaranteed sales, they will be able to withstand the quality and price. “We hope to complete and launch such a project within a year,” the businessman added.

He admits that the process of organizing a production shop will be long. To date, only a paper draft has been completed and financial discussions are underway.

Foie gras

Foie gras is the fatty liver of a force-fed goose or duck, from which the delicacy of the same name is made, as well as mousse, pâté or terrine.

The origin of foie gras has a deep history: the ancient Egyptians were engaged in forced fattening of geese. Today, however, France is rightly considered the “country of foie gras”: it has not only the necessary technologies and experience, but also a developed production cycle.

In France, mass industrial production of foie gras began in the 1980s. Today, the country produces more than 90% of this product. The remaining percentages are divided between countries such as Bulgaria, Spain, Hungary, and China.

In France, the production of foie gras is part of the country's cultural and gastronomic heritage and is regulated by national law. This contributes not only to large production volumes, but also guarantees the quality of the product. Therefore, Andrey Kuspits went to France, who at one time organized the production of French delicacies from Russian meat in Moscow, and now wants to establish the production of foie gras.

In a comment to Reedus, the culinary specialist admitted that earlier, at his request, a farmer near Moscow, Dmitry Klimov, tried to produce foie gras, but nothing came of it.

“As a result, in March we went to France to the farmer Thierry, where we looked at the production with our own eyes. We also bought a feeding machine, eggs and thoroughbred ducks, brought them to the farm, hatched chicks,” Kuspits said.

At present, French ducks have grown up, they will become the ancestors of those birds from which foie gras will be produced in the Moscow region in the future.

Meanwhile, no one abandoned attempts to make a completely Russian delicacy: now the farm is conducting a second experiment to feed Russian breeds of ducks, and the first results will be visible this fall.

“Some normal amount of foie gras will be produced by next summer. However, the volumes in general will not be large: about 200 units of liver per month,” shared Kuspits.

According to him, large volumes of product production are in principle possible, but this requires a developed production cycle, which involves different farms and entire cooperatives.

“For example, in the departments of Gers and Gascony, the main producers of foie gras for France, this is put on stream: one farm produces a mother's egg, another raises adult ducks, sells them to farmers who are engaged in feeding, a cooperative takes the bird from them, which deals with slaughter, - said Kuspits. - We do not have this cycle, so we do it within the framework of one farm. However, our experience, a kind of know-how, can be shared with those who wish to deal with this issue.”

The deli specialist said that the end product of Russian foie gras liver would be terrine. However, it is not known how much the delicacy will cost: Kuspits admitted that he did not even make approximate calculations.

Meanwhile, the production of foie gras has already been launched at a goose farm in the Chekhov district of the Moscow region. Those who wish are offered fresh goose liver at a price of 850 rubles per kilogram. However, Reedus could not find out about production volumes and product quality: the farm employees did not provide a comment, citing the lack of management.

Cheese

The already mentioned company "Nikolaev and Sons" in the Krasnodar Territory produces camembert and buch, and from October it is going to produce brie.

Another major player in the dairy market is Umalat. The company is engaged in the production of cheeses, including Italian varieties such as ricotta and mascarpone, and in terms of sales of mozzarella, the company occupied a quarter of the market even before the embargo.

“The production cycle is carried out under the guidance and control of foreign specialists who have found the opportunity to combine traditional recipes with modern technologies,” the company says.

The manufacturer's portfolio includes three federal brands: Unagrande, Pretto, Umalat. Products are sold in federal retail chains, as well as served in cafes and restaurants throughout Russia.

The fashion for farm products has led to the fact that in recent years small cheese dairies have appeared in Russia. One of them is located in the village of Maslovka in the Tambov district of the Lipetsk region, where Vladimir Borev, a Russian enthusiastic farmer with a journalistic background, brought a couple of professional French cheese makers, Nicole and Gilles de Vouge.

“By the time we accepted the invitation to visit our friend in Russia, my husband and I had been making cheese in our own cheese factory for 40 years,” Nicole told Reedus. “In France, they are well aware of the healing effect of cheese, so all the ingredients, starter cultures and various enzymes are sold exclusively in pharmacy chains.”

According to her, the Russian workers were able to exactly comply with all the technologies used by French farmers. “We are glad that when we leave, we leave our equipment and cheese production technology in Russia,” added Nicole.

Farmer Vladimir Borev, in turn, revealed several secrets used in the production of French miracle cheese. According to him, the product is made from not heated, not pasteurized and not boiled milk.

“Milk temperatures above 25 degrees kill lactobacilli. And, after all, it is known that these are healing microorganisms that have a healing effect on humans. For example, the probiotic bacteria Lactobacillus Plantarum TENSIA have a positive effect on the functions of the cardiovascular system, such cheese is also called “heart cheese,” Borev explained.

The technology "captured" from France must be used in the Russian Federation, he is sure. But in order to reach an industrial scale, it is necessary to unite a dozen such farms. The next step, according to Borev, is up to the authorities.

“In France, this kind of cheese is not sold by the kilo: it is the Rolls-Royce of the cheese world, piece-assembled. The concept of weight for such cheese is relative, it lives and constantly transforms,” the farmer noted.

The main difficulty for French farm cheese in Russia is its certification. Rospotrebnadzor simply cannot assume that cheese can be produced without boiling milk.

What hinders the Russian manufacturer?

So in the supermarket "Okay" 270 grams of Camembert from "Lefkadia" will cost 629 rubles. At the same time, a similar product from the Danish food giant ArlaFoods, sold in the same store, costs almost half as much (around 350 rubles for the same 270 grams).

Even if we imagine that all “sanctions” will disappear from online trading platforms and counters of Russian stores, not all gourmets will be able to afford expensive Russian counterparts.