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Lithuania's Viciunai Group drops plans to invest in Minsk

BC, Vilnius, 22.09.2016.Print version
Viciunai, a leading Lithuanian food group that is owned by Kaunas Mayor Visvaldas Matijosaitis, has dropped plans to build a large fish processing facility near Belarus' capital of Minsk, citing changes in the business environment and the company's strategy as the reason, reports LETA/BNS.

"The decision to abandon the status of a resident of the Minsk free economic zone (FEZ) was well thought-out and based on business logic," Mindaugas Snicorius, the group's spokesman, told.


"It had been years since plans to build a factory in Belarus were discussed.  Many changes have occurred both in the business and in the world over these three years. Our current business strategy is primarily to reinforce production in our existing factories," he said.


Belarus' news website Udf.by has reported that Viciunai Bel, a Viciunai Group company that was to implement the project, has lost its Minsk LEZ resident status due to a lack of activity on the part of the Lithuanians.


Matijosaitis said back in 2013 that he intended to move a part of production from the group's fish processing factory in Sovetsk, a town in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, to Minsk. He planned to invest 4.5 mln euros in the new production facility and another 2.7 mln euros in a logistic center.


Viciunai Group's 15 factories in Europe manufacture fish and other food products that are supplied to 58 markets around the world.






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