Andrei was born in Omsk, Siberia. He received his legal education at the Omsk Law Academy, graduated master degree of international economic relationships in the Moscow State University of International Relationships of Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After graduation, he started his business in Russian agricultures export. In 2016 Andrei became a founder of “Siberian Pine Nuts” Company. The focus area is procurement, processing and export of pine nuts. In the current year, 2020, the company started a new production site for pine nuts processing. Also, in 2020, Andrei was elected as Managing Partner of the Noncommercial Partnership “Russian Union of Wild Crop Collectors and Processors”.
Pine nut is one of the brightest representatives of the wealth of Russian nature and, of course, a storehouse of useful elements. According to a study published in 2010 in the journal Food Technology[1], pine nuts contain almost 65% of high-quality oil, easily digestible proteins (which include 19 amino acids, vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, E), and some of the most important macro and microelements. Pine nut kernel contains B vitamins, vitamins E and K, as well as iron, phosphorus, zinc, magnesium, copper and especially manganese. 100 grams of pine nuts satisfy one third of the daily protein requirement of the human body.
There are 3 varieties of cedar growing in Russia: Siberian Stone Pine (Pinus Sibirica), Korean Pine (Pinus Koraiensis) and Japanese Stone Pine (Pinus Pumila):
- The area of growth of the Siberian Stone Pine is 29 million hectares in western and eastern Siberia, and central Altai; the potential volume of harvesting is 80,000 tons per year.
- The growing area of the Korean Pine is 3 million hectares in Primorsky Krai and Khabarovsk Krai, Jewish Autonomous Region; the possible harvesting volume is 15,000 tons per year.
- The growing area of Japanese Stone Pine is 33 million hectares in Eastern Siberia and Far East, possible harvesting volume per year is 5,000 tons.
There are four leading countries in the world in terms of pine nuts raw material base: Russia, China, North Korea and Mongolia, and Russia possesses one of the largest pine nuts raw material base.
| Country | Pine Nuts Raw Material Base* |
| (Crop 2020/2021, Metric Tons) | |
| Russia | 42,000 |
| China | 42,000 |
| North Korea | 35,000 |
* Pinus Sibirica & Pinus koraiensis, in-shell basis (metric tons).
The key feature of the current state of the Russian pine nut market is that about 85% of the crop exports to China in-shell. For example, of the 17 thousand tons of pine nuts collected in Russia in 2019, 14 thousand tons or about 82% were exported to China in-shell and 3 thousand tons or about 18% were processed in Russia only.
Noncommercial Partnership «Russian Wild Crop Union» was established in Russia in 2007. The main goals of the Union are:
- revealing the resource potential of renewable natural resources;
- participation in the regulation of the turnover of wild plants from harvesting to their deep processing;
- regulation of the trade turnover of wild plant products in the domestic and foreign markets;
- participation in lawmaking aimed at the development of sustainable, socially and environmentally responsible forest management
- also, Russian Wild Crop Union is involved in the implementation of organic wild crop collection & production principles into the Russian legislation.
Russian Wild Crop Union is a partner of the World Wide Fund for Nature and is aiming to become a partner of the FairWild Foundation in the near future. Our plans include:
- to implement protection of pine forests from fires destruction & logging;
- to ensure rational use and harvesting of pine nuts by tenants without bureaucratic delays;
- to ensure involvement of all forest management entities into the process of using non-timber forest resources on a legal basis;
- to return part of the value added from the use of pine trees resources of Russia in the environmental and social activities of the taiga regions.
The Russian Wild Crop Union aims to be a reliable partner for companies in Europe. Competitive advantages of the Union's partners are:
- Union’s members have direct access to national raw material base –the largest in the world, with the cheapest raw material prices and the lowest export quote rates;
- financial guarantees & references by Russian federal bodies and government corporations, such as the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, Russian Export Centre, etc.;
- Union’s pine nuts processors are able to cover raw material collection totally and have highly modernized production facilities, capable to process the entire volume of Russian raw material;
- organic feature of Russian origin pine nuts as a basis option, environmental protection, sustainable development & zero-waste processing are our core values.
[1] Палагина, М. В., & Приходько, Ю. В. (2010). Обоснование использования дальневосточных растений в качестве функциональных ингредиентов в технологии пищевых продуктов. Известия высших учебных заведений. Пищевая технология, (4).