Baltic Export, Foodstuff, Latvia, Markets and Companies

Balticovo had a turnover of LVL 22.45 million last year, which is 15.1% more than in 2008, when the figure reached LVL 19.5 million, writes LETA.

As reported, Balticovo plans to concentrate more on profitable export markets, including the United Kingdom's Marks & Spencer and Poland's Tesco supermarket chains, building a new melange workshop for LVL 1.5 million, as well as launching intensive trade in Sweden and Germany, said the company's board chairman Arnis Veinbergs in an interview with the business portal "Nozare.lv".

Veinbergs indicated that the company currently exports around 70% of its production, and that everything possible was being done to investigate possible market opportunities and react to favorable demand.

"This year we invested LVL 1.5 million in building a new melange workshop, which was created in accordance with the requirements of Marks & Spencer and can process up to one million eggs in one shift. Melange, or eggs without shells, is a growing market in Europe, therefore the new workshop is intended only to produce exports for major clients. At present it is difficult to say when our investments will pay off, however, our specialists are carefully investigating profitable markets and we are ready at any moment to take advantage of export opportunities and demand from various countries," said Veinbergs.

The Balticovo chairman noted that the greatest obstacle in gaining access to major chains was protectionism. "We have to produce 3 million eggs per week to get into Poland's Tesco. We can handle it, but as soon as we talk with particular retailers in Poland, we immediately face strong protectionism. The same situation is also observed in Finland and Sweden. The Polish market is attractive in terms of price, location and size. It is a time-consuming process, but sooner or later – we will get there."