Food & Beverage News: Insights, Safety, and Dining Trends
- Danone will invest €6m across this year and next to modernize its dairy factory in the Almaty region.
- The plant currently makes over 18,000 tons annually; one third exported to the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Mongolia.
- Danone plans to raise production to 40,000 tons, producing fresh dairy under brands Activia, Danoninio, and Danissimo.
- The Kazakhstan Ministry of Agriculture announced the project after talks with French officials, aiming to expand exports and enter new markets.
- Danone’s Kazakhstan business sits in the Rest of the World unit, which generated €4.5bn in 2024, 16 percent of group sales.
Danone is set to more than double the output of its manufacturing plant in Kazakhstan.
The French giant plans to spend €6m ($6.9m) across this year and next at its dairy factory in the Almaty region.
At present, the site makes more than 18,000 tons of products a year, a third of which is exported to countries in the Caucasus, central Asia and Mongolia.
Danone wants to increase the site’s output to 40,000 tons, the company confirmed to Just Food. The plant makes fresh-dairy products sold under brands including Activia, Danoninio and Danissimo.
“Danone is delighted to be investing for growth and modernisation in Kazakhstan,” it said in a brief statement.
This publication asked if the investment would create new, full-time jobs at Danone.
The project was announced by the Kazakhstan Ministry of Agriculture after a meeting between government officials from Kazakhstan and France.
In a statement, the ministry said Danone wants to double the plant’s exports to the Caucasus, central Asia and Mongolia, as well as start shipments to the Middle East and China.
“I am confident that this initiative will strengthen Kazakhstan as a reliable partner for supplying dairy products to the countries of Asia and the Middle East,” Aidarbek Saparov, Kazakhstan’s Minister of Agriculture, said.
Danone’s operations in Kazakhstan and the broader group of Commonwealth of Independent States are included in its Rest of the World business unit, which also houses the company’s assets in the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific.
In 2024, the division generated sales of €4.5bn, which accounted for 16% of Danone’s total sales.
In May last year, Danone sold its essential dairy and plant-based (EDP) division assets in Russia to local dairy producer Vamin Tatarstan.
Last month, PepsiCo set out plans to double investment and more than triple production capacity at an under-construction salty snacks plant in Kazakhstan.
The facility in the Almaty region was originally set to make 16,000 tons of snack products a year when it opens in spring 2026 but will now aim to produce 70,000 tons of finished product.
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