Information for fruit and vegetables business in CIS
Chumak company adds capacity of Kakhovka cannery
The players of Ukrainian produce market inform that Chumak company, one of the food industry leaders, started construction of new tomato processing plant in Kherson oblast. As it was informed, new Chumak plant will increase significantly the present tomato processing capacities after its launch.
The PR specialist of Chumak company told to the Agricultural Marketing Project that they are not going to build a new plant but to modify the available capacities of Kakhovka cannery owned by the company. To reconstruct the plant, EBRD provided a loan worth about $ 26 mln., you could read about it on site of the Agricultural Marketing Project, November 18th, 2005.
After modification the plant is expected to obtain new modern vegetable processing and packing lines, the storage premises will be extended too. To our regret, the representative of Chumak company did not mentioned in figures the planned capacity growth of Kakhovka cannery after its reconstruction. The produce market players - Chumak partners - think that the plant will be able to process 50-60,000 tons of tomatoes more as compared to the pre-reconstruction period.
At the present moment Chumak company produces ketchup, mayonnaise, seasonal canned produce on Kakhovka cannery; tomato juice and paste on Skadovsk cannery, also owned by the company. Moreover, Chumak owns refined sunflower oil producing plant. In 2004 the company planned to process approximately 65,000 tons of tomatoes. If the information provided by the market players is trustworthy, Chumak will be able to double tomato processing capacities.
The demand on raw materials will undoubtedly grow in the region, providing farmers with the advantageous opportunities to make money. It's worth mentioning that in 2004 Sandora company, the hugest juice producer, bought tomato paste producing plant of 20,000 tons processing capacity; the plant is located in 30 km distance from the cannery owned by Chumak company. The same year Donetsk entrepreneurs purchased other enterprise in Kherson oblast that planned to process up to 20,000 tons of tomatoes annually.
The competition for raw materials is growing by rapid rates, so that the projects on industrial vegetable production in Kherson, Mykolaiv, Odesa and Zaporizhzhya oblasts start to attract huge investors. According to the information of the Agricultural Marketing Project, large foreign tomato producer may start working in Kherson oblast soon. New farm plans to produce tomatoes in industrial volumes applying the most advanced intensive technologies on about 200 ha; moreover, production and harvesting will be fully mechanized. Besides, huge producers in Kherson oblast show vivid interest to transplant machinery and tomato harvesters, as they consider acreage extension and production mechanization to be the only way to make their business more profitable.