The food manufacturer Monge registers the marks “Mongeau”, “Monzhno” and “Mozhno” in the Russian Federation

At the beginning of October, the Italian manufacturer of premium dog and cat food Monge submitted applications to Rospatent for registration of the Russified trademarks “Monge”, “Monzho”, “Mongno” and “Mozhno”. A request to the company itself remained unanswered, but experts interviewed by Vedomosti believe that it is going to return to the Russian market under localized brands.

In May of this year, Rosselkhoznadzor banned the import of Monge products due to identified violations. In particular, service specialists did not find the DNA of this animal in some rabbit food. And they found chicken DNA in salmon feed. In total, Rosselkhoznadzor identified 9 violations in 2022 and three in 2023. A representative of the agency explained to Vedomosti that at the moment these restrictions remain in place. But he confirmed that Monge had provided documents confirming that the violations had been corrected. Now they are under consideration, Vedomosti’s interlocutor explained.

It will not be easy for the Italian manufacturer to return to the Russian market, experts say. If we talk about the situation in the feed market, the current situation has improved significantly compared to, for example, 2022, says General Director of Infoline Analytics Mikhail Burmistrov. According to him, premium food of the main brands is now presented on marketplaces; they are imported into the country by intermediaries. Russian manufacturers are increasing production and trying to enter the middle and high price segment, he explains. Therefore, Monge will have to invest quite seriously in promoting its products, since it will be sold under an unknown brand, and consonance with the old brand is unlikely to convince consumers, the expert believes. In addition, according to Burmistrov, the company will have to enter all key marketplaces and actively invest in sales through large networks.

Monge is not the first foreign company that is trying to localize its brands in Russia. Previously Nestle filed applications to register the trademarks “Pro Plan” and “Purina One”, they also relate to pet food. “Gourmet” cat food, which was previously called Purina Gourmet, has also become “Russified” (in 2022, Purina suspended the production and sale of some products in our country – Friskies, Cat Chow, Dog Chow, Gourmet and Darling Dog.

The pet products market in Russia has reached 330 billion rubles. in 2022, according to Zooinform. At the end of last year, the Association of Feed Manufacturers estimated the local production deficit at 300,000 tons. To solve this problem, as stated then, it is necessary to build about 10 factories and invest about 50 billion rubles in this.