Chumak () is a Swedish–Ukrainian food processing company in

Kakhovka Kakhovka (, ) is a port city on the Dnieper River in Kakhovka Raion, Kherson Oblast, of southern Ukraine. It hosts the administration of the Kakhovka urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. It had a population of Kakhovka has been under ...

Kherson Oblast Kherson Oblast (, ; ), also known as Khersonshchyna (, ), is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) in southern Ukraine. It is located just north of Crimea. Its administrative center is Kherson, on the northern or right bank ...

. It is today one of Ukraine's biggest food processing companies and has commercial offices in

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

Minsk Minsk (, ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administra ...

and Moscow. Among its products are

ketchup Ketchup or catsup is a table condiment with a sweet and sour flavor. "Ketchup" now typically refers to tomato ketchup, although early recipes for different varieties contained mushrooms, oysters, mussels, egg whites, grapes, or walnuts, amon ...

, mayonnaise, pasta, salad dressings, cooking sauces, canned vegetables, marinated vegetables,

tomato juice Tomato juice is a juice made from tomatoes, usually used as a beverage, either plain or in cocktails such as a Bloody Mary (cocktail), Bloody Mary, a Caesar (cocktail), Caesar, or Michelada. Production Many commercial manufacturers of tomato ju ...

and

sunflower oil Sunflower oil is the non-volatile oil pressed from the seeds of the sunflower (''Helianthus annuus''). Sunflower oil is commonly used in food as a frying oil, and in cosmetic formulations as an emollient. Sunflower oil is primarily compos ...

. Chumak is the largest tomato processing company in Central and Eastern Europe. The company currently (2010) employs about 1200 people and has a revenue of about 48 million euros. The company was founded in 1996, first under the name ''South Food, Inc'', by the two young Swedish entrepreneurs Johan Bodén and his nephew Carl Sturén. They soon got financial help from

Hans Rausing Hans Anders Rausing, Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, KBE (25 March 1926 – 30 August 2019) was a Swedish industrialist and philanthropist based in the United Kingdom. He made his fortune from his co-inheritance of Tetra Pak ...

Tetra Pak Tetra Pak is a Swedish multinational food packaging and processing company headquartered in Switzerland. The company offers packaging, filling machines and processing for dairy, beverages, cheese, ice cream and prepared food, including distr ...

who got 66.7% of the company. The latter sold his share of the company in early 2008 to the Swedish investment company East Capital (22.2%) and the Ukrainian investment firm

Dragon Capital Dragon Capital Group is an integrated investment platform focused on Vietnam and other Southeast Asian emerging markets. History Founded in 1994, from an initial base of US$16m, Dragon Capital has offices in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi (SSC regis ...

(44.5%). As of 2013, Chumak was the second largest producer of ketchup in Ukraine, with a share of 25.00%. Kakhovka was occupied by Russian troops during the first days of the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

. Chumak, being at the time number two on the Ukrainian market, halted production and moved its headquarters to

History

The company was founded on 29 May 1996 in

. It was founded by two Swedish entrepreneurs, Johan Boden and Carl Sturen, who first came to

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

in 1993. They were both 19 years old and had been involved in a family business producing vegetables in Sweden. The low cucumber harvest that year in

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

, where they had been buying their raw materials, forced the entrepreneurs to start looking for a replacement for the lost Estonian crop. Juhan and Karl returned to

to find a place for future production. By 1995 Johan and Karl realised the need for their own production. In their search for investors, they found support from Professor Hans Rausing, the founder of

, a leading food packaging company. Chumak was the first company in

to produce

and most sauces without preservatives. Since the end of 2007, it has become the only company in the CIS to produce preservative-free mayonnaise. In 2008 the tomato processing plant had an annual capacity of 2,500,000 kg of

tomatoes The tomato (, ), ''Solanum lycopersicum'', is a plant whose fruit is an edible berry that is eaten as a vegetable. The tomato is a member of the nightshade family that includes tobacco, potato, and chili peppers. It originated from and was d ...

. In March 2008, the investment company

and East Capital Bering Ukraine Fund together acquired 70% of Chumak's shares from one of its founders, Professor Hans Rausing, with the remaining 30% owned by Johan Boden and Karl Sturen. In the same year, the construction of a new office in

was completed. In 2009 the company launched a pasta factory, a separate workshop for the production of pasta. In 2015 a workshop for the production of in-house juices was launched in

. Since the end of 2015 the company has been building a roasted sunflower seed production facility. The company plans to launch its own production in this area in the first quarter of 2016. In 2019, Chumak became a part of the Delta Wilmar, a Ukrainian subsidiary of

Wilmar International Wilmar International Limited (); is a Singaporean food processing and investment holding company with more than 300 subsidiary companies. Founded in 1991, it is one of Asia's leading agribusiness groups alongside the COFCO Group. It ranks amongs ...

Activity

The company's main products include ketchup, tomato paste, mayonnaise, salad dressings, cooking sauces, seasoning sauces, zucchini caviar, adjika, canned tomatoes, cucumbers and

peppers Pepper(s) may refer to: Food and spice * Piperaceae or the pepper family, a large family of flowering plants ** Black pepper ** Long pepper ** Kampot pepper * ''Capsicum'' or pepper, a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family Solanaceae ...

, pasta, and others. The company employs 1.4 thousand people. The company exports up to 20% of its products (importing countries: Russia,

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

Moldova Moldova, officially the Republic of Moldova, is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe, with an area of and population of 2.42 million. Moldova is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. ...

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

Uzbekistan , image_flag = Flag of Uzbekistan.svg , image_coat = Emblem of Uzbekistan.svg , symbol_type = Emblem of Uzbekistan, Emblem , national_anthem = "State Anthem of Uzbekistan, State Anthem of the Republ ...

, Israel, Germany, Italy, Spain,

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

the USA The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

). The production process is certified in accordance with DSTU ISO 9001: 2009, DSTU ISO 22000: 2007 and BRC Global standards, and is regularly subject to inspections and independent audits.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Chumak's official homepage
Food manufacturers of Ukraine Ukrainian companies established in 1996 Condiment companies