Kraft Foods is set to open a biscuit plant in Ukraine, one of the US food giant’s ten “priority” emerging markets.
The Oreo maker is in the final stages of building the factory, which will be in the town of Trostaynets, in the north-west of the country. Kraft already has a chocolate plant and a coffee packaging facility in the town, a spokesman for the company’s Ukraine unit said today (2 September).
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The biscuit plant is expected to start producing Oreo, Tuc and Lu biscuits from December. Next year, the factory will manufacture 20,000 tons of biscuits and, over the next four years, output will double, the spokesman explained.
“The biscuits category in Ukraine is still in its formative years, with Kraft Foods having basically built this category from scratch,” the spokesman told just-food. Over the last few years, the company has launched Oreo, Tuc and Lu and, this year, Kraft Foods reached number one in the biscuit category, moving up from fifth, with much further potential for growth.”
Kraft has doubled the size of its business in Ukraine in the last three years and its sales stand at around US$500m, the spokesman added. The company is using Ukraine as a base to develop its business in 11 surrounding markets, including Belarus and markets further afield like Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.
