Food Tech Eurasia dairy processing

Initially primarily a packaging event, the show has grown and diversified over recent years, there is now a ‘sub-show’, Dairy Tech, which includes many companies looking to expand their sales to regional countries.

More than 1,200 exhibitors were at the event, from 48 countries, while there were more than 58,000 visitors in attendance, from 115 countries.  Organizers said more than $464m of orders were taken by companies at the event itself.

Regional growth

Around 34% of the visitors are involved in the food industry, and exhibitors had a wide range of equipment on display. Inomjon Mirzoev, sales manager at Uzermak, which makes milk and cheese machinery, said that as many of the companies exhibiting were from Turkey, it is much easier for them to transport quantities of equipment for display within the country. The company exhibits at other events, such as SIAL in Paris, and Gulfood in Dubai, however, the distances involved – as well as the number of borders to be crossed – makes taking equipment logistically unfeasible.

Uzermak is one of the companies that is also seeing an increase in business from many of the former Soviet republics in the region: Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Georgia and Armenia.

These countries combined have a population of more than 86m, slightly more than Germany at approximately 82m. In area, however, the region covers 4.2m sqkm, making it bigger than India. Clearly, the market is huge.

Mirzoev told DairyReporter that as these countries develop, and become more independent, they are looking to improve their food infrastructure, leading to them looking west for equipment, technology and know-how.  

While there is no monopoly on selling to the region, Mirzoev said he feels Turkey is ideally placed to pick up much of this new business.

Uzermak Company supplies machinery and equipment as well as installation of turn-key projects with aftersales services to the dairy and food processing companies.

The company, founded 20 years ago in İzmir, western Turkey, manufactures and installs process cheese machinery, kashkaval and mozzarella processing lines, cream cheese processing machines, cheese vats, filter drums, cooker, cooler, and mixer machines, feta mechanical homogenizers, moulding machines, trolleys, centrifugal pumps, curd feeding conveyors and filters, storage tanks, CIP tanks and units, and more.

Hommak

Another Turkish company based in İzmir is Milkotek-Hommak Machinery, which introduced the first indigenous homogenizer and piston pump machine in Turkey. The company is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of homogenizers and piston pumps for not only the dairy industry, but also for other foods and beverages and the chemical/petrochemical, cosmetics, pharmaceutical, and biotechnology industries.

Plant director Engin Yetik told us more about the company and its products, which have been utilized by more than 100 Turkish dairy companies, as well as international companies such as Milkotek and Danone.

Smart Proses

Another company exhibiting at the event with a large dairy component was Smart Proses, based in Turkey’s capital, Ankara.

Sales director at the company, Ömer Salgın, spoke to DairyReporter about the company’s range, and its partnerships, distributing products such as those produced by Pentair Südmo, Sawa Pumpen, IFM and is a Bürkert solution partner.

The company, which was founded in 2017, also engineers and produces processing technology for dairy, beverages and other foods, as well as CIP and pasteurization units, sterilization systems, IT, chocolate and cake production machines, stainless tanks and mixers, evaporation systems, UHT systems, milk storage tanks and food safety, hygiene and quality control technologies.

Kappak

Not all of the dairy-related companies at the event were promoting processing equipment. Kappak, based in the Başakşehir district of Istanbul, creates lids for not only the dairy industry, but also for a wide variety of beverages, cosmetics, glass jars, and more.

A part of the Kurt Industry Group of companies, the company’s foreign trade executive, Doğan Yalçın told DairyReporter it has been producing aluminum foil and lids since 2012. Its products are compatible with PP, PS, PET, PE, PVC, glass and cartons. It also provides die-cutting, design and printing and lamination services for the industry.

Examples of its products in dairy include buttermilk lid caps, cream cheese and labneh lids, ice-cream lids and yogurt covers.