Business programme

The agro-industrial complex is a part of the national economy that is currently experiencing great change. Efforts to preserve our food sovereignty have resulted in the proliferation of local brands and regional products. Now that we can be sure our food is secure, we must move on to ensure all consumer demands are met with substitutes for foreign delicacies and wines. The departure of major foreign food brands serves as additional impetus for the development of the restaurant business. The HoReCa sector is growing, with trendy new restaurant projects appearing all over Russia with the best chefs, celebrities opening their own brand restaurants, and menus filling with exquisite dishes capable of satisfying even the most demanding food lovers. Attempts to expand menu offerings are generating an exponential increase in demand for new products not always available on retail shelves. These attempts can be satisfied by agroholdings and local farmers, of which there are over 12,000 in Russia, though farmers are not always ready to work directly with restaurants for several reasons: the ability to ensure the necessary quantities of the product, compliance with restaurant quality control, the cost of logistics, and the way weather conditions can affect a harvest. Two paths remain for development: production contracts between farmers and restaurants, sometimes inconvenient for one of the parties, and distribution through an intermediary capable of delivering the produce of several farmers to one restaurant. Which solution is most realistic? Who could take on the role of farmer – restaurant distributor? What are chefs looking for now and where do they buy rare produce for their dishes?

Moderator
Alexey Litvyakov, Managing Director of the Marketing and Communications Department, Russian Agricultural Bank

Panellists
Oleg Bondarev, Founder, BeefStory Farm
Dmitriy Goldfarb, Managing Partner, Stroganoff Group
Mikhail Goncharov, Founder, Teremok; Member of the Coordinating Council, Chairman of the Restaurant Business Committee, All-Russian public organization "Business Russia"
Nikolay Davydov, Farmer
Aleksander Lyskovsky, Director General, iFarm
Oleg Paroev, General Director, Vkusno - i Tochka
Oleg Sirota, Founder, Oleg Sirota's Istra Cheese Factory Store
Yunis Teymurkhanly, Owner, Helvetia Hotel

Mikhail Goncharov

Founder, Teremok; Member of the Coordinating Council, Chairman of the Restaurant Business Committee, All-Russian public organization "Business Russia"

Mikhail Goncharov is founder and CEO of Teremok restaurant chain.
Mr. Goncharov was born in Alma-Ata in 1970. In 1992, he graduated from the Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics of Moscow State University.
In 1995 he organized a company specializing in the sale of electronics and household appliances. After the economic crisis of 1998, he created Teremok fast-casual restaurants chain, which became the largest in Russia.
In 2021, Mikhail Goncharov became a member of the Coordination and General Councils of the All-Russian Public Organization “Delovaya Rossiya” and headed the Committee on the restaurant business.
Teremok operates through more than 335 restaurants with over 5,000 employees in Moscow, St.-Petersburg, and Krasnodar. The company’s revenue made up 16,6 billion rubles in 2023.

Oleg Paroev

General Director, Vkusno - i Tochka

Oleg Sirota

Founder, Oleg Sirota's Istra Cheese Factory Store

Front row participants
Anton Poriadine, Partner, Yakov & Partners
Maria Tyumeneva, Founder, Communication Agency "Appetizing Marketing"

Anton Poriadine

Partner, Yakov & Partners