A major Kazakhstani confectionary company Rakhat plans to expand into foreign market, Tengrinews reports citing the Head of the Public Affairs Department of Rakhat company Nataliya Timoschuk.
A major Kazakhstani confectionary company Rakhat plans to expand into foreign market, Tengrinews reports citing the Head of the Public Affairs Department of Rakhat company Nataliya Timoschuk.
The confectionary company plans to export its products to the markets held by South Korean Lotte Confectionery that bought the Kazakh confectionary in the beginning of the year. So now South Korea will become our export destination of choice.
“We are planning to bring our export to 20%. We intend to enter the Chinese market. And our products are gaining popularity in Russia, so our presence there is also expanding every year,” Timoschuk said.
At the moment, Rakhat exports its sweets and other confectionery products to Russia, Germany, Afghanistan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan. The company has its representative office in Kyrgyzstan. Rakhat imports raw materials from Russia, Turkey, Germany, Slovakia and other countries.
“We choose our raw materials very carefully. We prefer natural materials. We strictly follow the technological process and all production processes are fully automated. The company is continuously monitoring the market, industrial developments, experience of our counterparts and working on development to expand our range of products,” the Head of the Public Affairs Department added.
After the Kazakh company was sold to the Korean confectionary some of its Kazakhstani customers started complaining about the quality of Rakhat sweets and chocolate. Buyers say that Rakhat products are not as tasty as they used to be. Some believe that it has something to do with excessive use of soy in the chocolate.
But the company says that the concerns are groundless. “Chocolate is made along our classical technology and consist of cacao products, sugar and dairy products (in milk chocolate). Change of the management has not affected our confectionary and the relations with our suppliers,” Timoschuk explained. She added that it became possible to sign contracts with some of the manufacturers without any intermediaries thanks to Lotte Confectionary.
Reporting by Vladimir Prokopenko, writing by Gyuzel Kamalova, editing by Tatyana Kuzmina