Lipetsk, September 15. /ITAR-TASS/. A plant in the Russian central city of Lipetsk producing candies under Ukraine’s brand of Roshen suspends its operations for the period of two weeks starting on Monday, the factory’s press service said.
Oleg Kazakov, the director general of the factory, earlier said that the decision on the plant’s operation suspension was made due to large volumes of the produced goods accumulating at warehouses amid low demand for the company’s production in Russia.
He also said that the factory was expected to resume its production either on September 29 or October 1.
The Roshen confectionery conglomerate belongs to Ukraine’s President Pyotr Poroshenko and in 2001 it purchased the Russian Lipetsk factory, which was called then Likonf (founded in 1966).
Roshen Confectionery Corporation is Ukraine's market leader and a world industry major. It unites factories in the Ukrainian cities of Kiev, Vinnytsia, Mariupol and Kremenchuk, the Klaipeda confectionery plant in Lithuania, Hungarian facility Bonbonetti Choco Kft, Lipetsk Confectionery Company's two Russian production sites and Ukraine's Bershadmoloko butter-milk plant.
The corporation produces around 200 types of confectionery, generating annual production of up to 450,000 metric tons.
The conglomerate sells its production in Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Moldova and other post-Soviet republics, as well as in Germany, the United States, Israel and Lithuania.
In late July 2013, the Russian food safety agency Rospotrebnadzor imposed a ban on imports of Roshen products from the Ukrainian plants citing their low quality and safety, including the hazardous and cancer-causing organic compound called benzopyrene that was allegedly discovered in candies. The Russian plants did not fall under the ban then.
Later the two countries continued talks on resuming imports of the Ukrainian sweets to the Russian market. According to Rospotrebnadzor, Ukraine suspended negotiations on the issue amid worsening political relations between Russia and Ukraine.
According to late August media reports, Roshen confectionery corporation topped the list of Poroshenko’s assets, which he had promised to sell after assuming the post of the president.