La Festa relocates production to Romania

The Polish-held La Festa, which makes the Tedi-branded juices, will relocate part of its production facilities from Poland to Romania, following Poland’s accession to the EU this year. “The accession of the ten states to the EU will change the landscape in the region a great deal. For some producers like Maspex (La Festa’s owner), it will be increasingly less profitable to export from Poland, so that they will be moving their production facilities to those states that have not joined yet,” Krzysztof Grabowski, La Festa chairman, said. The customs duties on foodstuffs imports made by CEFTA countries that will not join the EU this year, like Romania, from the CEFTA members that will join this May, will rally to the EU import duties. The customs duties for Romania’s imports of foodstuffs from EU will stay at 20%-40% for a few years, as negotiated for the protection of the Romanian foodstuffs industry. La Festa will invest in a vegetable and fruit processing facility so that it would no longer have to resort to imports. “There are very few Romanian companies processing fruit up to the aseptically packaged fruit pulp stage, which can be used in making juices all through the year. We can get fresh fruit in Romania, but only when in season, while we need them all the time,” Grabowski added. ZF