September 5 2007, 09:40

Will Sandora (PepsiCo) construct new plant for juice and concentrate production in Lviv region?

At once several fruit and vegetable producers in Lviv region provided "Agrooglyad: Fruits and Vegetables" weekly, CIS produce business periodical, with the following information: recently purchased by the giant of beverage industry PepsiCo Sandora company plans to construct the plant specializing on fruit and vegetable processing in the region. New enterprise will supposedly produce juice and concentrate. Our sources inform Sandora plans to invest up to $ 80 mln. to a new plant. The farmers refer to the negotiations with the representatives of the enterprises concerning the supplies of fruit and vegetable raw materials, predominantly carrot and apple.

At the same time, the Press Service of "Sandora" company flatly disproved this information; however, some employees of the company have heard about such plans, but they asked not to mention their names. "Sandora" press-service cites some very valuable arguments making us doubt the information got from the producers. First of all, PepsiCo has just recently purchased this company, so at the present moment they can be occupied only with the analysis of the inner situation and the changes in management in correspondence with the requirements of the new owner. Of course, nobody speaks about large-scale investments at this moment. And, to the experts' opinion, the declared amount of investments to the plant construction seems somewhat overestimated.

On the one hand, "Sandora" Press Service believes, such rumor might arise on the basis of the intention to create own project by Prof. Sergey Sypko, the former co-owner of "Sandora" company. Possibly the matter concerns exactly a new project of this businessman; to the opinion of the company representatives, he is able to invest money earned due to the sale of "Sandora" to a new project of juice production. Moreover, according to our information, the entrepreneur has almost finished the construction of a new juice plant in Golopristanskiy district of Kherson region. Also, the resellers of commercial apple may possibly disseminate the false information, as they often introduce themselves as the representatives of large enterprises.

On the other hand, to the opinion of the specialists of "Agrooglyad: Fruits and Vegetables" weekly, Lviv region ideally suits to the creation of the enterprise which processes carrot, apple, strawberry, currant, pear, plum and other fruits into juice and concentrate. The prices for these fruits and vegetables are lower in the region than in the southern regions of Ukraine, and the supply is rather high. At the same time, there are almost no large competitors in Lviv region and in the whole western region, but there is a large number of small processors.

Also, Lviv region together with the closely located Chernivtsi and Zakarpattya regions refer to the areas performing high rates of orchard development; this fact ensures good raw material perspectives in future. Moreover, a rather great number of apple orchards is located in Khmelnitskiy, Volyn and Rivne regions where the competition for raw materials is also lower than in Nikolayev, Kherson regions and AR Crimea where "Sandora" processing enterprises are located.