The International Potato Tour (Международный картофельный тур) continues its deep dive into potato processing across Russia. This time we’re in Bryansk Oblast, in the town of Mglin. Here, a starch plant founded in 1932 survived shutdown in the 1990s, bankruptcy, and has effectively been reborn thanks to the Drobiazko family. Today the enterprise produces native potato starch and is preparing a line for modified starch—a step toward a new economics of higher value-added products.
Motto of the day on the plant floor is short and practical: “We’ll grind it all.”
“Farmers look at the appearance of the tuber, and we look inside,” the team stresses.
From “ground zero” to 400 t/day
In the 1990s several starch plants in the region sat idle: raw materials were scarce and equipment degraded. According to Andrey Arkadievich Drobiazko, receivership threatened to turn assets into scrap. The family took the risk: they restored buildings and utilities, re-installed critical units, and rebuilt the process chain.
Today the site runs two processing lines of 200 tons each (up to 400 t/day total). Full loading depends on logistics and seasonal raw-material availability, but the plant is technically ready to perform at a modern level.
How a “dirty flow” becomes white starch
The path from truck to bag of starch is a sequence of mechanical and hydraulic stages where both rugged hardware and precise control matter:
- Receiving & primary cleaning: rotary drums knock out soil and stones (incoming loads may contain up to ~50% impurities).
- Hydraulic feed & washing: water flow conveys the mass to washers; the team is proud of a robust “Soviet-era” washer—“as reliable as a Kalashnikov.”
- Pulping & multistage separation of fiber (pulp) and starch milk.
- “Starch traps” capture and return fines to minimize losses.
- Fine purification (refining) via microcyclones with density sensors and auto-recirculation to ≈38 °Bx (Brix); once density is reached, the stream advances to the next stage.
- Dewatering & drying yield saleable native starch.
A special focus is industrial safety: starch dust is explosive when safety protocols are violated, so ventilation, aspiration, and dust control are continuously monitored.
Raw materials, economics, and the seasonal bottleneck
The plant prioritizes technical varieties with high starch content. Table varieties with low starch (“Gala,” “Colomba,” etc.) drag the economics down. Management ties the price ceiling for procurement to the actual starch percentage; with low starch, the plant cannot overpay and still sustain year-round economics. At present, peak production lasts 3–4 months a year; they plan to bridge the gap with modified starch production and tolling/contract processing schemes.
Sales cover all of Russia and CIS markets, with native starch going into food and non-food segments depending on the batch specification.
A “European” model with nearby farmers
To stabilize loading, Mglin is developing partnerships with nearby farms—a proven model used widely in Poland:
- The plant provides seed with high starch potential plus recommended fertilizers.
- Farmers grow and deliver to the plant under pre-agreed parameters.
- Both sides gain transparent economics and short-haul logistics.
The team is also building its own raw-material base: plans call for up to 1,000 tons of seed stock, dedicated seed plots, and storage to better control quality and harvest timing.
R&D and agronomy lessons: from micronutrients to machinery
Daniil Andreevich Drobiazko—a storage/processing technologist, agronomy M.Sc., now a Ph.D. student—leads the R&D track. His focus is starch modification (moving from an “ingredient” to a food additive with higher margins) and field experiments:
- Micronutrients: split fields into with/without zones and measure differences in tuber set and dry matter.
- Variety trials: technical types with a rougher skin often indicate higher starch; for comparison, the Belarusian “Mah (Mag)” has a more marketable look but lower starch %.
- Operational lessons: haulm management ahead of harvest, choosing a haulm chopper (flail topper) with full bed coverage to prevent the combine from clogging with under-dried stems.
“A couple of times I guessed starch content by eye—by tuber texture and flesh behavior,” Daniil notes. Final word, of course, comes from the analyzer.
People, character, and succession
Andrey Arkadievich is a USSR Master of Sport in freestyle wrestling. Athletic endurance proved useful in business: “In our line of work, energy comes first.” The father-son tandem blends discipline with research-driven persistence—and it shows both in the plant and in the field.
Facts & Figures
- Founded: 1932
- Location: Mglin, Bryansk Oblast (Russia)
- Capacity: 2 lines × 200 t/day = up to 400 t/day
- Product: native potato starch; modified starch line in launch phase
- Raw material: priority on high-starch technical varieties
- Model: local farmer partnerships + in-house seed stock (target up to 1,000 t)
- Markets: Russia and CIS
- Safety: dust/air control, aspiration, and OSH compliance at all stages
Why it matters for the sector
- Value-add near the field. Modified starch turns processing into a driver of local economics and export potential.
- Stable loading through partnerships. Seed + agronomic support + guaranteed off-take = predictable economics for both sides.
- “Old-school” hardware + precise sensors. Rugged units plus digital density and loss control deliver quality at competitive cost.
- Agronomy geared to processing. Variety choice, haulm desiccation/kill, flail topping, and micronutrients all impact starch yield and cost.
In their own words
Andrey Drobiazko: “We used to trade starch and potatoes, then decided to produce them ourselves. The start was tough, but today we have two lines and a team that knows the process inside out.”
Daniil Drobiazko: “Modified starch is a step up. It’s a food additive, and the financials are on a different level for the plant.”
Bottom line
Mglin shows how industrial discipline, agronomic precision, and farmer partnerships can turn a “problem asset” into an anchor enterprise for the region. We’ll be watching the launch of the modified starch line and the results of on-farm micronutrient trials—steps that could set a new efficiency benchmark for potato processing in Central Russia and beyond.
