Roshen board supports Poroshenko's arguments that information on corporation's goods in Ukraine should be written in state language
The Board of Directors of Roshen confectionary corporation has supported the arguments of its shareholder, Economic Development and Trade Ministry of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko that information on the company's products sold in Ukraine should be written in the state language.
"It is important that there should be one state language in Ukraine – Ukrainian. This is my position," he wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday.
Poroshenko said that he has a rule not to interfere in the operation of companies in which he is a shareholder.
"This concerns Korrespondent, Fifth Channel and Roshen," he added.
Poroshenko believes that today Roshen is not simply a business, but one of the brands of Ukraine in the world.
"Issues concerning language, sovereignty and territorial integrity are state issues. I've initiated the discussion of the issue at the meeting of the board of directors of Roshen Corporation, and my arguments were accepted: [information on] Ukrainian goods on the Ukrainian market should be in the Ukrainian language," he said.
As reported, recently social networks discussed the fact that Roshen Corporation had changed information in Ukrainian on its sweets to information into Russian. Roshen President Viacheslav Moskalevsky explained the act of the company as a necessity to survive.
He said that the change of languages was made in May, and he was surprised at the row over the issue now. He also said that the company's products are sold both in Ukraine and Russia and the corporation chose a language understandable in both countries.
Roshen owns confectionery factories in Kyiv, Mariupol (Donetsk region), Kremenchuk (Poltava region), two factories in Vinnytsia, the Bershadmoloko dairy factory and Litynsky cattle breeding farm (both in Vinnytsia region), as well as the Lipetsk confectionery in Russia and the Klaipeda confectionery in Lithuania.
The corporation produces 200 types of confectionery products: chocolate and jelly candies, caramel, chocolate, biscuits, wafers, biscuit Swiss rolls and cakes. Its total production reaches 410,000 tonnes of confectionery per year.
On November 9, 2012, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine permitted Roshen to buy a controlling stake in Bonbonetti Choco confectionary factory in Hungary.