Between Ukraine and Russia, Kazakhstan’s Chocolate Might Come Out a Winner · Global Voices
▻http://globalvoicesonline.org/2014/06/16/kazakh-chocolate-patriots-hope-ukraines-loss-is-their-gain
When the struggle between Russia and the West over Ukraine was just warming up last summer, Russia unceremoniously elbowed Ukrainian chocolate-maker Roshen out of its domestic market. At the time, the move was widely interpreted as a punishment for Kiev’s pledge to sign an Association Agreement with the European Union, rather than join Moscow’s alternative – the Customs Union.
The ban on Roshen imports was subsequently lifted in November after then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich gave in to Russian pressure and fatefully U-turned on the EU agreement. There was more bad news for Roshen in March this year – the Kremlin shut down the company’s Russian factory over a month after the Maidan protest movement toppled Yanukovich and just days after Crimea voted to join Russia and secede from Ukraine in a controversial referendum.
With Roshen’s owner Petr Poroshenko recently becoming president of Ukraine and reiterating his endorsement of the pro-EU stance of the Maidan movement, Roshen’s foothold in the giant Russian market now appears to be a thing of the past.
But what has all that got to do with Kazakhstan?
As with Roshen [ru] before the beginning of the Ukraine crisis, over 50 percent of Rakhat’s exports go [ru] to the giant Russian market. “Every year, Rakhat’s chocolate becomes more in demand in Russia,” concluded [ru] Nadezhda Belimenko, the company’s marketing director last year. Following Roshen’s very public divorce with Russia, Kazakhstan’s chocolate patriots are hopeful that share will continue grow.