Today we took an agricultural excursion that was just a few miles down the road from our Hostel, to a company called Wimm-Bill-Dann. This is a Russian-owned company that was started in 1992 and it employs more than 17,000 people throughout the country and 6,000 in Moscow. The primary products they sell are dairy goods, juices, water and others. We visited the dairy processing plant. This was the first company to coin the word "Yogurt" in post-Soviet times and also the first company to package juice into cardboard containers, as seen in the West.
We began the tour (which was guided by a former student from the university I am collaborating with here in Moscow) in their "museum" and looked at the model layout of the plant we would be touring.
The next phase of the visit allowed us to see from overhead windows the various processing/packaging of many different dairy products. We eventually ended up in a room that David, one of our Clemson students, considered to be a "Focus Group" facility and he thinks maybe they even watched us sampling all of the goods. There were at least 40-50 items on the table for us to sample, including fruit yogurts, my favorite "Chudo" (vanilla and banana/caramel flavored milk) and also the flavored liquid yogurts.
The students really seemed to enjoy the visit. Thanks to Wimm-Bill-Dann!!
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