News round-up

Other highlights in the region's news this week include Nemuno Banga buying up a Czech PET business, Latvian food companies seeking EU subsidies, Russia pledging to hurry up certification for Polish food exporters and Turkish company Sisecam setting up a €50 million bottle factory in Russia.

PET buy out

Nemuno Banga Group, a leading PET preform producer in Central and Eastern Europe has confirmed the acquisition of Czech PET preform manufacturer Eko PET, which is located close to Prague.

The acquisition is part of Nemuno Banga Group continued steps towards achieving the leading position in the European PET preforms market. The new plant will serve customers, mainly from the food and beverage industry, in Czech Republic, Germany, northern part of France, Austria, Switzerland, Hungary and Slovakia.

The company said that it had bought out the Eko PET's operations, together with its 60 employees, because of its strong geographical location and good business links. It also said that it would be investing in new machinery for the facility to produce multi-layer performs.

Latvian food companies to get EU compensation

Some 44 Latvian food companies that signed up for EU subsidies back in June are set to receive compensation payments for lost trade to non-EU countries.

The Latvian Agricultural Ministry reported that the subsidies follow on from the Baltic State's accession to the EU, which led to a number of food companies losing out on subsidies in both the dairy and confectionery sectors.

Dairy companies account for 35 of the applications, whilst the rest are confectionery companies that have lost out due to EU sugar subsidies.

Russia pledges to speed up Polish certification

Russian authorities have confirmed that they will speed up the process of certifying Polish meat companies wanting to export their goods to Russia.

According to a report in the Polish Business Digest, more than 315 companies involved in seafood, dairy and meat processing having been pushing for the certification process to be hurried up. Veterinary representatives from Russia have been inspecting production facilities during the course of the last month, but many Polish companies have complained that delaying tactics have been employed.

Further to this Russia's agriculture minister, Alexsley Gordiyev has said that he will visit Poland at the end of the month in order to discuss in ways in which the two countries can speed up the factory inspection process.

Turkish bottler to build Russian factory

Turkish glassmaker Sisecam says it is readying to invest €50 million to build a new beer bottle factory in the Republic of Bashkortostan, in the South Urals.

The company says that the new facility will have an annual production capacity of 240,000 bottles. Sisecam is Turkey's leading glass maker and has a growing presence worldwide. It announced that it intended to open a bottling factory in Russia last month.