The American Dream seems to be conquering MEVGALlike now USA they are the main destination outside of Greece for North Hellas dairy products and especially feta, with organic feta being a strong card. MEVGAL’s export value to the US reaches 9 million euros, “a whole company in itself,” said Ms. Maria Hatsaku, President of MEVGAL, on the sidelines of the opening of AEB’s Metro Distribution Center in Northern Greece.

Increasing exports to the US with a presence in all states, not just the East Coast, and overall sales outside of Greece largely offset losses in the domestic market, which dairy industrya consequence of the decline in demand caused by large revaluation. On the other hand, they create a need for additional investment.

In 2022, MEVGAL completed the first phase of a new investment in feta production, totaling 20 million euros. During this period, the delivery of mechanical equipment from Germany is expected so that the new production line can be put into operation in the next period. In addition, exports, and especially exports of feta cheese, are an antidote to existing competition in the domestic market, which is expected to intensify in Northern Greece with the repositioning in the market of products under the AGNO brand, which have been taken over by Hellenic Dairies (Olympos, TYRAS and etc.). “As my dad used to say, MEVGAL has a lot of legs, so okay, if she has a problem with milk, you will have yogurts. If he has a problem with yogurt, you will have cheese. We are very strong in the cheese industry because we have exports,” Ms. Hatsaku noted pointedly.

Recall that in 2022, according to the research company Circana, sales of white milk fell in physical terms by 6.4%, cheese by 5.1% and especially feta by 8.8%, yogurt by 6.6%, cream by 5.3% and chocolate milk by 4.8%. The reason was the large increase in prices for dairy and cheese products, in addition to the increase in the cost of energy and animal feed, and also due to the lack of sufficient milk, mainly goat and sheep. In fact, industries in this sector have gone so far as to give supermarkets half the amount they asked for in order to be able to serve all their customers. MEVGAL – and not only – for the first time last year decided not to participate in one of the world’s largest food and beverage exhibitions, SIAL, precisely because there was a risk of not meeting the needs of any new customers. . However, this year the situation, according to Ms. Hatsaku, is much better: MEVGAL recorded positive results for the first four months of 2023.

In 2021, MEVGAL’s turnover increased by 10.95% to EUR 129.65 million and EBITDA to EUR 8.09 million.