II International Trade Fair “Ukrainian Food Expo” was held successfully in Kyiv

Ukrainian Food Expo covered a wide range of food products: milk and dairy products, meat and poultry, confectionery and bakery, fish and seafood, oils and fats, fruit, vegetables and berries, fine foods, beverages. Moreover, there were special expositions of local producers of farm and craft products; suppliers of equipment, technologies and services to the industry.

The only in Ukraine food hub turned to be an unique business platform that brings together experienced suppliers and large retailers, food distributors and buyers from all over the world to introduce them to their counterparts in Ukraine for pragmatic business negotiations on food sector.

On 12–13 December Ukrainian Food Expo served as b2b platform to showcase products to foreign buyers, find new partners, make deals and long-term contacts with the representatives of both Ukrainian and foreign retailers and wholesalers, distributors, HoReCa business and traders. The successful business networking was facilitated by unique option “I’m offer/looking for” as contact exchanging and inquiry making between exhibitors and visitors; UFE Mobile App as the efficient tool to arrange appointment with exhibitors and business visitors, find details on trade fair, business program, list of exhibitors, etc.

Within the framework of trade show there were held 12 business events targeted at sharing successful export experience and best practices, new business ideas and communicating with experienced experts, marketers and successful businesspersons.  Conferences — “Milk Processing 2018”, “Meat Business 2018”, “Beef Conference 2018”, “Confectionery & Bakery 2018”, “Fish & Seafood 2018”, “Fruits, Berries & Vegetables 2018”, “Grocery 2018”; seminars — “Oil Exports from Ukraine”; Congress for Exporters “Ukrainian Food 2018”; forums — “Export of Agri-Food Products”, “Made in UKRAINE: export practices in agribusiness”, VI Ukrainian–German Food Forum.

Conference “Meat Business 2018” was devoted to the analytical review of meat market and the latest consumer trends. Andriy Pankratov, international expert of FAO, made analytical overview of meat market in Ukraine and globally. According to the expert’s forecast, in 2019 headcount of cattle and pigs would decrease to 3.4 million and 5.9 million, relatively. Frans van Dongen, COV-Dutch Meat Industry Association shared the experienced of the Netherlands in pork exports of premium quality. Oleksandra Kovalchuk, Myronivsky Hliboproduct talked about the current opportunities and challenges of poultry exports based on the experience of company as market leader. Ukraine is in top-10 world exporters of poultry. As per USDA forecasts, in 2018 poultry exports from Ukraine amounted to 310,000 tons.

Conference “Confectionery & Bakery 2018” brought together professionals of confectionery industry to discuss export possibilities of Ukrainian confectionery, make analytical review and forecasts of confectionery and bakery market in Ukraine and globally.

Veronika Holovina, SC “Doehler Ukraine” introduced the innovations, trends and business cases on the market of chocolate. “Just 32% of consumers prefer “sweet taste” in the products with low sugar content. The innovative combinations of fruit-vegetable tastes of confectionery are becoming more popular among consumers,” – mentioned the experts. Tetiana Shermolovych, TM “Yarych” shared their experience in exporting cookies and crackers. The market share of TM “Yarych” is 32% and their export geography includes Poland, the USA, countries of Western Europe and Middle East. Oleksandr Baldyniuk, Association “Ukrkondprom” made the analytical review of Ukrainian and global confectionery market.

Conference “Milk Processing 2018”. The current year became a turning point for Ukrainian dairy industry. The production and consumption of milk and dairy products have increased, Ukrainian dairy exports has gained access to new markets, share of extra quality milk supplied to the processing has increased. According to the report of Vadym Chaharovskyi, Union of Dairy Enterprises of Ukraine the growth of dairy market volume has been facilitated by active ad campaign of all market leaders, stable prices for dairy products in the supermarkets, changing consumers’ preferences towards products of well-known brands, increased consumption by HoReCa. Olena Stretovych, TM “Organic Milk” talked about organic dairy business and challenges on the Ukrainian market, demand of Ukrainian consumers for organic dairy products.

Participants of “Beef Conference 2018” discussed the place of Ukraine in the global beef market and best practices on developing export possibilities to the EU market. Yevhen Shatokhin, international FAO expert on livestock shared the American experience in using semen of meat bulls for dairy herd. Denys Kryvenko, T-Bone talked about the automated production based on HACCP principles and traceability system from calf to ready-to-eat products. Wael Alami, Certification Center “Halal Global Ukraine” talked about Halal certification as a key to beef exports to the countries of Middle East.

IV Congress of Exporters “Ukrainian Food 2018” was devoted to International Marketing as a Key Need of the Export Markets. Ali Bulut, International Union of Businessmen of Ukraine and Turkey talked about the prospects of relationship between Ukraine and Turkey in agri-food business, introducing Turkish agricultural sector, state support of agri-food exports and Turkey’s experience in export promotion. “We set a goal to enter top-5 agricultural countries till 2025. We aim at increasing agricultural GDP to USD150 billion,” – admitted Mr. Bulut.

Roman Koliadiuk, Advertising & Marketing Group COMPASS shared the ideas about packaging of exported products that would attract potential consumers on the international markets. Rita Polishchuk, Global Ukrainian Distribution, Investment and Trading talked about food marketing in the countries of Eastern Africa. Yurii Lutsenko, Consulting integrated highlighted the features of agri-food marketing in Japan.

Participant of Conference “Grocery 2018” discussed the current situation on the flour-grinding market. Rodion Rybchynskyi, Union “Millers of Ukraine” made market analysis and introduced the development path of Ukrainian flour-grinding market.  Oleksandra Kyshchuk, Ukrainian Food Export Board talked about potential export markets for Ukrainian pasta. As she mentioned, in 2016/2017 Ukrainian pasta market decreased by 12%, while exports increased by 24%, imports – by almost 50%. Biago Sala Anselmo Impianti s.r.l., introducted the investments into pasta production and new trends of pasta-making business.

Conference “Fish& Seafood” was opened with the report of Dmytro Zahumenyi, Association “Ukrainian Importers of Fish and Seafood” on the fish imports and consumption in Ukraine. He mentioned that mostly Ukraine imports fish from Norway, Iceland and the USA. Ukrainian consumers prefer herring, mackerel, hake, salmon. Maryna Rusak, 1 Caviar Supermarket highlighted the potential of Ukrainian market of red caviar. Christen A. Mordal, the Norwegian Seafood Council made brief overview of Norwegian fish industry and talked about import of Norwegian fish to Ukraine.

Participants of conference “Fruits, Berries & Vegetables” talked about production and pricing for horticulture products, peculiarities of fruits and berries freezing, investment in Ukrainian berry business and possibilities for export to the EU market. Oleksandr Kudin, T.B. Fruit talked about closed production cycle of fruits and berries: from raw material to exported product. As he mentioned, Ukraine had great export possibilities and could become leader in growing fruits and berries. Benno Grimberg, FoodTechLink and Andriy Marushchak, Incools Engineering reported on the investments and world trends in the equipment for freezing fruits and berries. Maksym Bilozorov, Gulfrost Company reported on the integrated berry business.

Seminar “Oil Exports from Ukraine”. Volodymyr Pershuta, Brevant Seeds taked about potential niches for oil exports from Ukraine and high-oleic sunflower as one of them. Oleksandr Buiukli, First Ukrainian Agricultural Cooperative mentioned about Ukrainian export of both raw and processed products. Dmytro Toloknovsky, Ukroliya Company talked about advantages of consuming organic oil.

Next time Ukrainian Food Expo will be held in November 2019 to bring together experienced suppliers and large retailers, distributors and buyer pools to introduce them to their counterparts in Ukraine for pragmatic business negotiations.