Ukrainian Dairy Industry: Resilience, Adaptation and Global Ambitions at Gulfood
After the fantastic experience at Gulfood - The World's Biggest F&B Event in January, last week in Ukraine was quite a contrast – Russia continues to commit genocide against the civilians and increases the risk of another man-made environment disasters for the whole of Europe – the world is not talking about this enough!... But I still want to dedicate this post to the largest food exhibition in the world.
Like the Ukrainian people, Ukrainian businesses continue to find ways to function despite permanent (physical) threats to their activities and a lack of funds, electricity, and human resources. For example, according to estimates, distributed generation in private ownership in Ukraine is approaching 1.5 GW, including capacity fr om generators, as well as solar and gas piston electricity (thanks for the targeted and direct support of the EU and other European countries here). The adaptation is ongoing, but Ukrainian cows continue to be milked, and raw milk continues to be processed into high-quality products that are attractive not only for the domestic market but also in demand on foreign markets. Therefore, it was very pleasant to have 12 Ukrainian companies producing dairy products (including 10 members of the Union of Dairy Enterprises of Ukraine SMPU) at this year's Gulfood exhibition in Dubai, UAE, brought together 8,500+ exhibitors from 195 countries.
The exhibition was bustling with activity both at the Ukrainian stands in two locations and throughout the Dairy pavilion, which was one of the reasons for the global rise in commodity prices that we have been seeing in recent weeks. Meetings with colleagues and getting to know new people and brands allowed us to note down many interesting insights and observations. Both during the exhibition and when analyzing supermarket shelves, I was surprised by the popularity among Middle Eastern manufacturers of specific products such as Kefir, Skyr, Greek Yogurt, and others, which are more relevant trends for the EU and the US. In general, the dairy shelf in Dubai stores looks quite European, which once again confirms the importance of Ukraine's adoption of EU requirements and implementation into the Common Market, which is what the EU Integration Committee of Ukrainian Dairy is working on.
Thanks to SIPPO Ukraine, I was able to better understand the infrastructure of stands organization for such a large-scale event as Gulfood, and gained a lot of useful information and meetings. The main task is to strengthen the export capacity of the members of the Union of Dairy Enterprises of Ukraine SMPU in the coming years, wh ere exhibition activities are undoubtedly the best tool for this purpose.
The exhibition was bustling with activity both at the Ukrainian stands in two locations and throughout the Dairy pavilion, which was one of the reasons for the global rise in commodity prices that we have been seeing in recent weeks. Meetings with colleagues and getting to know new people and brands allowed us to note down many interesting insights and observations. Both during the exhibition and when analyzing supermarket shelves, I was surprised by the popularity among Middle Eastern manufacturers of specific products such as Kefir, Skyr, Greek Yogurt, and others, which are more relevant trends for the EU and the US. In general, the dairy shelf in Dubai stores looks quite European, which once again confirms the importance of Ukraine's adoption of EU requirements and implementation into the Common Market, which is what the EU Integration Committee of Ukrainian Dairy is working on.
