RIGA - Baltic Feed, a Finish-owned producer of cattle feed and fodder additives, announced plans to build a new production plant in Latvia over the next year-and-a-half. Investments are to reach 4 million euros.
Chairman Jukka Haikonen said the existing production plant in Latvia would be improved and a new modern plant built next to it.
"The developing Baltic market is the main reason why the company will make such large investments," he said, adding that Suomen Rehu, Baltic Feed's Finnish parent company, would invest funds.
Teiksma Pastora, Baltic Feed's executive director, said the new plant would produce its currently manufactured products along with launching another product line.
The company also plans to increase export to Finland, Lithuania, Estonia, Belarus and Russia. Currently, Baltic Feed sells 40 percent of its manufactured products in Latvia, 40 percent in Lithuania and 20 percent in Estonia.
"It is difficult to calculate a market share in Latvia because we produce fodder additives and vitamins, and it seems that they may take 15 to 20 percent [of the market]," Pastora said, adding that Rigas Kombinetas Lopbaribas Rupnica was one of the company's strongest rivals on the Latvian market.
Pastora predicted that Baltic Feed would have a 4 - 5 percent turnover increase this year in comparison with last year. In 2004, the company generated 2.8 million lats (4 million euros) in sales, or 15.3 percent more than in 2003.
Baltic Feed produces and distributes mineral additives, fodder mixtures, vitamins and special products for cattle, pigs and fowl.
Suomen Rehu is Finland's largest cattle feed producer and has been the sole owner of Baltic Feed since November 2004.