A Weekday Adventure: A Trip to the Natige Factory

Yesterday I had the extreme pleasure of visiting the Natige milk factory on the outskirts of Karaganda. Natige is the dominant brand of milk in Karaganda, and does well in Astana, the capital, but has yet to expand into the rest of Kazakhstan; I have no doubt that it will do however in time. Why am I so confident that it will?

It has a lot to do with the business as well as the product; Natige is a family run business that was started 15 years ago with the simple idea of providing chemical-free fresh milk and is the only brand of milk to do so in Kazakhstan. I personally think it's the best brand of milk-products available in the shops, and it really stands out from the other more Soviet-looking products on the shelves. I have sneaking suspicions that most of the directors of the companies that produce these products made their money from dodgy dealings in the wild 90s as opposed to Natige, whose success comes primarily from hard-work.

And the cow on the packaging is just so cute! Look at it!

The factory was something of wonder; how such a small and intimate place can produce so much milk is amazing. All of the processes are sterile and automated, the packaging is provided by Tetra-Pak. It's nice to see exactly just where the milk you buy comes from and how it's made. At the end the various managers had me weighed down with so much stuff that I now have a fridge full of milk and other Natige products. These are some seriously generous people.

Unfortunately there are no pictures for you of the factory or the industrial-strength kefir that I was lucky enough to try. I am going back on the 4th of August however; this time I will take my camera for my adoring audience.

In other news, the heat briefly lowered earlier today when a small pocket of rain dumped itself over Karaganda; a soaked Tom was mightily relieved and thankful. The accompanying thunder was like nothing I have never experienced. Even half a mile away it sounded like the sky had torn open and all of hell had followed it in.

Until next time.