Penza, 23 October 2015. PenzaNews. The agricultural producers in the Penza region, which could not push their products to store chains several years ago, presently enjoy a multitude of options in cooperation with them, announced Andrei Burlakov, acting deputy chairman of the regional government, during his October 23 press conference held in the PenzaNews agency press center on Friday.

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“As of recently, the flow of requests to assist promotion of various business structures for store chains has dried away. The present procedure is substantially easier. Indeed, there was a time two years ago when it was nearly impossible to get into a store chain, but a lot is very different right now,” he stressed.

Currently, several store chains sign up small-scale contracts with farmers for supply of goods to certain shops, Andrei Burlakov added.

“As a rule, large-scale producers experience no problems at all when joining store chains,” said the acting deputy chairman of the regional government.

According to him, the main issue when joining a store chain is related to maintaining required standards for supplied goods.

“If you are creating a one-of-a-kind type of goods with particular features in smaller runs, you obviously need a different way to sell it. Through fairs, markets, direct sales,” Andrei Burlakov explained.

The officials saw no significant complaints on being unable to join a store chain, he added.

“We have good relations with Magnit, Karavan, Lenta, X5 [Retail Group]. No declines from them. On the contrary, they make a lot to work with us, say our goods need to be presented more,” Andrei Burlakov pointed out.

However, he added that local producers require a lot of things to explain to.

“We always tell them they need to have some buffer stock and components handy to endure things, that a store chain is obligated to sell your goods through retail, that the brand must be well-recognized and good in quality. You also must always follow the schedule. This is why markets are convenient: if I have the goods today, I go there; if I encounter any issue the next week, I don’t. This doesn’t cut it with a store chain: once you go out on the shelves, be so kind as to remain there, whatever the situation,” Andrei Burlakov stressed.