Information for fruit and vegetables business in CIS
New cannery Mikaland in Zakarpattya produced the pilot lot of fruit and vegetable commodities
The new cannery Mikaland was set up by the German company I. Schmidt Handelsgesellschaft mbH in Zakarpattya; according to the information published in Novyvny Zakarpattya newspaper, the enterprise produced a pilot lot of commodities. During the first 72 hours of work about 72,000 cans of the processed vegetables were produced. Three processing lines are planned to be working on the plant, each of them is of 100-110 cans/min capacity, or 10-15 thousand of cans per shift.
Mikaland is the joint enterprise set up due to the German, Hungarian, American and Ukrainian investments ; it is located in the village Perekhrestje, Vinogradiv rayon, Zakarpattya oblast. In the name of the cannery two names were united - American company Sunland and Mikado trademark, owned by one of the largest producers of the canned vegetables, mushrooms and fruits - the German company I. Schmidt Handelsgesellschaft mbH, well known in Russia and Ukraine. About 200-220 inhabitants of the village Perekhrestya and the nearby villages will work on the enterprise. The cannery plans to produce minimum 12 mln. of standard cans per year.
According to the information provided to the Agricultural Marketing Project by Yudita Petei, the Director of the enterprise, the canned produce will be sold in Ukraine and also exported to Russia. Though, Mrs. Yudita considers the export to the EU countries possible too. The canned produce will be sold under the well-known trademarks Mikado and Sunland.
One more cannery in Zakarpattya, to the specialists' opinion, will sharpen the competition for the raw materials, which has been already severe in Zakarpattya. At the present moment this oblast hosts the greatest number of the processing enterprises comparing to the other regions in Ukraine, so they regularly face the serious problems on fruit and vegetable purchase. Past year the severe deficit of cucumber was close to make bankrupt some fruit and vegetable processors in the region. Despite of this fact, in 2005 the enterprises went on increasing the capacities, and the demand on the main raw material - cucumber - increased twice in the region, according to the evaluations of the AMP experts.
No matter how rapidly the demand is growing, the cucumber production in Zakarpattya oblast may increase only 35-45% this year. However, the Director of Mikaland cannery is sure that the plant will be able to purchase the needed volumes of raw materials, mainly cucumber. The enterprise has signed about 2,000 contracts with the private producers in the oblast.