February 20 2006, 15:08

In 2006 Austrian investors intend to invest EUR15 mln into fruit and berry production in Ukraine

In 2006 one of the largest produce processors of Ukraine, Ukrainian-Austrian joint enterprise "Podillya-OBST" plans to invest nearly EUR15 mln. into fruit and berry processing.

The investments will be assigned to the modernization of the existing plant in Vinnitsa oblast and to the construction of new plant for juice concentrate production. The location of new plant is unknown, but it will be probably constructed outside Vinnitsa oblast, where the competition for produce raw materials is high enough now.

To the opinion, of Andriy Yarmak, the Deputy Director of the Agricultural Marketing Project, this year the competition for fruit raw materials for concentrate, puree and juices will reach its peak. Such products as apple, peach, apricot, sweet and sour cherry will cause great problems to the processors. Competition growth is caused by the expected low fruit supply and simultaneous demand increase; the prices on raw materials will probably grow. So, to A. Yarmak's opinion, the prices on apples for processing will again beat the records and reach the price level for processing apples in Poland. Small and medium processors will be among the first to suffer.

At the same time, according to the evaluations of the Agricultural Marketing Project, fruit and berry production in Ukraine will increase in the nearest years in Ukraine, also due to the dynamic development of processing industry and new foreign and Ukrainian investments. The creation on the joint enterprise "Podillya-OBST" in Vinnitsa oblast resulted in the several international investment projects set up in the region and focused on raw materials production for the enterprise needs.

The control stock on the joint enterprise "Podillya-OBST" is owned by Austrian open joint stock company STEIREROBST. The company is created in 1958. In 1997 Ukraine was the first Eastern European country where the company located its own production. In 1998 STEIREROBST bought a company in Hungary, in 2002 - in Poland. The same year the company purchased another production enterprise in Hungary; in 2005 it opened a new plant on fruit filler production in Moscow oblast. In 2004 the majority of the company stocks is bought out by the international concern AGRANA.