Cork-based Kwayga is linking up with Ukrainian food and beverage suppliers to help support companies affected by the ongoing war with Russia, offering a free membership to its platform to help them reach new markets.
The subscription-based platform, which uses artificial intelligence to match national and international B2B buyers and suppliers within the food and beverage industry, is tapping into the market for Ukrainian produced food and beverages, and connecting them with new markets. Kwayga’s on-platform messaging centre also assists with communication, offering a live translation service.
The company is expecting demand for Ukrainian products to rise as the movement of millions of refugees across Europe has created demand in new markets.
The announcement came following a recent webinar hosted by Kwayga that included speakers such as Deputy Minister of Trade Representative at the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine Taras Kachka, Ambassador of Ukraine to Ireland Larysa Gerasko, and Mariia Dehtiarova, export promotion manager at U-Food Association, who is tasked with developing and promoting Ukrainian food worldwide.
“More than 80 per cent of Ukrainian producers have capacity, have capability but just don’t have customers at the moment because European have buyers decided Ukraine is not safe,” said Kwayga founder Mike McGrath. “We said let’s get as many Ukrainian producers as we can on the platform, introduce them to the buyers and start the conversation, start negotiations and get them doing business.”
The goal is to get Ukrainian products on supermarket shelves by the start of 2023.
Agricultural products are one of Ukraine’s key exports, and more than 200 million tonnes of Ukrainian agricultural products have left ports since the blockade in the Black Sea was lifted in July. That includes 33,000 tonnes of corn destined for Ireland.
Mr McGrath said hundreds of producers have already signed up, including at scale in some unexpected areas, such as confectionery, cakes and desserts.
Kwayga was established 18 months ago by Mr McGrath and Martin Fitzgerald, as a way of helping suppliers and buyers deal with some of the issues caused by Brexit. However, the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by Russia has created further challenges for companies in this sector, as has the spiralling cost of living.
“It’s a very challenging time for producers,” Mr McGrath. “Energy costs have actually been a big challenge. We’re talking to very large producers of frozen products across the continent at the moment, about energy costs, the cost of heating food and cooling food, and they actually unwilling to give long term pricing any more because if energy keeps going up, they can’t maintain it.
“From a demand planning point of view, it’s very difficult for businesses at the moment and that’s the challenge we’ve seen next. I suppose there’s a silver lining for us because we are then tasked with finding alternatives, we’re tasked with finding producers maybe in lower cost economies or we’re finding producers where energy might be cheaper or sustainable energy. We’re finding suitable suppliers who can maintain competitive in supermarkets appreciate that insight.”
