Terra Food, a large Ukrainian dairy producer, increased its export revenues in 2022 by 15% up to $41 mn, the company’s export director Maxim Voytovych said at the Exporters Summit organized by Forbes Ukraine.
According to him, the sales increase was possible due to the diversification of the export portfolio and flexibility with which the company reacts to the changes in the consumer sentiment in Europe.
He pointed out that the headliner of the company’s sales in Poland was a vegan analogue of the butter TM NATURALE. The company also launched this brand on the Baltic, Bulgarian and Hungarian markets and plans to supply Germany.
The B2C segment now accounts for 60% of Terra Food’s export portfolio, and the rest is B2B.
The company is also beginning a major expansion into the Chinese market, which it postponed because of full-scale Russian aggression.
“In March 2022 we were planning a large-scale expansion into China. We postponed that case because of the war, but we will launch that project in the near future. If you want to enter China, you can’t do it on the phone – you have to be present there, work with distributors,” Voytovich said, noting that a feature of the Chinese market is “risk aversion.”
Terra Food (TM “Ferma”, Premialle, “Tulchinka”, “Bila Line”) produces products in Ukraine at five companies.
The Administrative Board of the Northern Interregional Territorial Branch of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) has begun considering a case against Terrafood LLC (Terra-Food TM) for the production and distribution of a cheese product, the packaging design of which could mislead consumers .
As reported on the agency’s website on Thursday, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine opened a case on a complaint from a consumer who purchased the Mozzaretta cheese product produced by Terrafood LLC, confusing it with traditional mozzarella cheese due to a similar inscription on the package and its design in the colors of the Italian flag.
“During the consideration of the application, it was found that the dominant inscription in the Latin Mozzaretta placed on the front side of the package, in particular, that the font of this inscription (the letters “TT” are visually similar to “LL”) may give the consumer an erroneous impression regarding the method of manufacture and composition of the product (…) and influence his intention to purchase the product of this enterprise,” the Committee said in a statement.
The AMCU recalled that real mozzarella cheese, in accordance with international standards, may contain starters from lactic and/or aromatic bacteria, cultures of harmless microorganisms, rennet or other safe milk-precipitating enzymes, salt substitute, vinegar, flour and crumbs, in some cases safe dyes , acidity regulators, stabilizers and preservatives.
At the same time, in the composition of the Mozzaretta product under the TM “Terra-Food”, in particular, fats of non-dairy origin were found, which contradicts Article 1 of the Law “On Milk and Dairy Products”.
Given the above, the actions of the manufacturer in terms of product packaging contain signs of a violation of the law “On Protection against Unfair Competition”, the Committee reported and added that consideration of the relevant case had begun.
GC “Terra Food” develops business in three sectors – dairy, meat and agriculture. It is one of the five largest producers of dairy products in the country.
The production capacity of 10 milk processing enterprises of the holding before the Russian invasion was 31,000 tons of cheese, 78,000 tons of butter and vegetable butter, and 61,000 tons of whole milk products per year.
More than 100 types of meat products of the group are produced at the Tulchinsk Meat Processing Plant – more than 6 thousand tons of products per year.
Terra Food group of companies was the first in Ukraine to start supplying vegetable and cream mixtures to Morocco, 25 tonnes of the Gold Valley and 100 COWS brand products have already been shipped, the press service of the company reported on the website.
“Entering a new export market is always a victory for Terra Food, because it is painstaking work related to the legal, economic and cultural characteristics of a new country. We carefully studied all the preferences of consumers of the new market and proposed a recipe that best meets the expectations of Moroccans,” the director of the department of foreign economic activity of the company, Maksym Voitovych, said.
According to the exporter, earlier Ukrainian producers exported only butter to Morocco.
According to the data of the company, Terra Food in 2020 took the leading place in the export of vegetable and cream mixtures with a market share of 37%, while it covers 12.4% of the export of Ukrainian dairy products.
Vegetable-butter mixture is an alternative food product to butter, for the manufacture of which butter is mixed with vegetable oil and, using the transesterification process, is converted into a solid consistency. The use of this process allows avoiding the formation of a large number of transfat.
Terra Food is a large milk processor and dairy producer in Ukraine. It is part of the Terra Food group of companies, a vertically oriented agro-industrial holding specializing in production of meat, dairy products and agriculture.
Terra Food, one of the largest dairy producers in Ukraine, since the beginning of 2019 first shipped dairy products to Gabon, Iran, Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Palestine.
According to a report on the company’s website, the number of countries to which the company exported dairy products exceeds 60.
“Opening new markets is an important task in the company’s export activities, but the most important thing is to further develop the distribution of the brand in the export market, build long-term relations with business partners, and this is the strategic task of the export department of Terra Food,” the report says.
The group noted that the export development strategy envisages the opening of new markets, as well as the development of the range and increasing the volume of products in the major markets.
