Two major confectionery players have this month announced inroads into Russia, demonstrating that cocoa ingredients suppliers and their customers are seeking to spear fresh wins in Russia's emerging, and burgeoning, confectionery market.
“Food is a weapon – don’t waste it.” This message, which featured on a Second World War poster issued by the US Office of War Information in 1943, is a lesson from history we would do well to heed.
Barry Callebaut has highlighted Russia as a key target market in
Eastern Europe following the opening yesterday of its new chocolate
factory near Moscow.
Sweets such as chocolate and toffees will not be sold in school
canteens throughout Russia from September 1 of this year under a
new initiative announced by the country's chief sanitary doctor,
Gennady Onischenko.
Barry Callebaut has begun construction of a new state-of-the-art
chocolate factory in Russia, which should help the chocolate giant
better target the central and eastern European market.
Raisio will launch its Benecol functional ingredient in Russia - a
challenging market where obesity and cardiovascular disease levels
are high, but awareness of the dangers of high cholesterol is low.
Russia's decision to change procedures on excise stamps and import
licences for alcohol has backfired, with several domestic producers
reportedly having to suspend production.
Cost pressures on food producers and processors operating in Russia
look likely to increase as prices for sunflower seed oil rise ever
more rapidly, reports Angela Drujinina.
Nestlé has launched new sweets and biscuits in Russia as intense
competition has forced the firm to invest heavily in what is now
the world's fourth biggest confectionery market, reports Angela
Drujinina.
Russia's United Confectioners, which has just won 20 awards for
quality production, has begun networking for a move into new
international markets as a complex standardisation programme across
its product range looks on course...
Russian natural sauce producer Sostra believes a high quality
production technique called 'hot bottling' has led directly to the
success of its expanded premium product range, yet high pricing may
still deter consumers,...
Marketers of fast moving consumer goods in Russia may now think
twice about using free samples to promote their products, following
a decision to tax them. Angela Drujinina reports.
Aluminium packaging firm Alcoa, just named as one of the top three
most sustainable corporations in the world, has bought two
factories in Russia with a view to both dominating the region and
using its rich aluminium resources to...
United Confectioners Holding has initiated a complex
standardisation programme across its product range, a fact that
will allow products at different factories to be manufactured to
the same stable quality and taste, Angela Drujinina...
China has been the dominant supplier of many herbs, spices and
ingredients to the Russian market for the last 10 years, but a
reduction in Chinese crop areas to make way for more profitable
products has given local growers from the...
Russia's Sedmoi Kontinent has become the country's first retail
group to float on the stock market - a move widely seen as a bid to
raise cash for expansion before the expected influx of western
chains, as Chris Jones reports.
Ukraine's largest malt house is to receive more than €9 million in
outside funding to double its production capacity - helping French
company Soufflet to dominate the region and make the factory a
stable source of income for...
Russia's burgeoning grain ouput, which has risen by 9 million tons
in the last year alone, has lured a major international food
company to set up a new grain export terminal in the country,
despite industry fears over long-term...
Illegal production of refined sugar in Russia has had a devastating
impact on prices there, with 'underground' producers able to
undercut official processors by a substantial margin through the
use of much lower quality...
Double-digit growth rates are expected in the beverage sector
throughout central and eastern Europe over the next decade, fuelled
by growing consumer spending power and the arrival en masse
of major western drinks groups. But it is...
The need of ingredients and equipment suppliers to reach Russian
food manufacturers is becoming increasingly urgent, but in the
absence of established B2B advertising channels, few avenues have
been open. Now a new alliance between...
Perfetti Van Melle (PVM), the Dutch-Italian confectionery producer,
is to open a new production facility in the Moscow region as it
seeks to exploit market growth and narrow the gap with rival
producers already established there,...
Three major European brewing companies are competing to purchase a
small brewery in the previously unexplored region of Russia's far
east, as the scrap to profit from one of the world's
fastest-growing beer markets hots...
Russian fish consumption is rising as consumers turn to healthier,
safer and cheaper alternatives to meat, but with good quality fish
products hard to come by in some parts of the vast country, a new
fish sausage formula created by...
Baltika,
Russia's leading beer brewery, has announced the start of
production at its newly constructed malt processing facility in
Tula, central European Russia. The project aims to up the company's
own supply of...
Kraft Foods says it is preparing to launch the international
chocolate brand Milka in Russia in an attempt to further increase
its slice of the confectionery market there.
Although growth has been rapid for Nestlé in the Russian
confectionery sector, there are a number of challenges to be
tackled in order to ensure future expansion - low per capita
consumption and ingredients supplies being the primary...
German confectionery company Alfred Ritter has confirmed that it is
to build a €25 million factory in the Moscow region which will be
used to make the company's well known brand of Ritter Sport
chocolate bars.
Wheat has always been an integral part of Russian agriculture and
its food industry. However, a limited domestic market, reduction in
Russian livestock and a slow down in the consumption of bakery
products is forcing the industry...
The Russian dairy market has seen phenomenal growth in recent
years, driven largely by the development of Wimm-Bill-Dann and
other western dairy companies. France-based dairy equpment supplier
Erca-Formseal shares its experiences...
Investment fund Russia Partners II has acquired the Moscow-based
Ice-Fili ice cream producer and confectionery group Zvezdny,
according to a report in the Vedomosti newspaper.
Finland's leading confectionery company, Leaf, has said that it is
to build a factory in St. Petersburg, Russia, for the production of
functional pastilles and lollipops.
After several years of gains, growth in the Russian confectionery
market looks set to slow over the next six years or so, with only
premium chocolate products likely to bring big returns.
Danone is on the verge of buying the Chocks & Roll business of
Spain's Chupa Chups, one of its last remaining foreign units.
Evidence that Danone is still determined to pursue its expansion in
Russia despite failing to buy...
Two years after the Russian authorities imposed massive import
duties on confectionery products in a bid to keep out cheap imports
from Ukraine, that country's biggest sweet maker Roshen is about to
take Russia by storm with...
It would appear that Eastern Europe's appetite for yoghurts and
milk-based desserts is growing. Russian dairy giant Wimm-Bill-Dann
(WBD) has just installed a new €7 million production line at its
Kharkov dairy plant in Kharkov,...
Consulting agency Market Advice carried out an in-depth review of
the Russian brewing industry this month, with an emphasis on the
country's malt market. The findings reveal that imported malt is
consistently seen as being superior...
Confectionery producers in Ukraine are confident that they will be
able to increase output by 10 per cent this year, mainly as a
result of a recovery in exports to Russia.
Nestlé is the most popular chocolate producer in Russia, but other
international companies still play second fiddle to the numerous
local (or even regional) producers there. But the market is set to
grow over the next five years,...