Local consumers trust Estonian-produced food, which is very tasty and high quality. Estonian food products deserve to have a success story beyond Estonia’s borders. Recognizing the high quality and unique flavour characteristics of our products, we have set ourselves the ambition to become Estonia’s favourite meat brand not only in the Baltics but also beyond.
“Estonia has developed a food export and promotion strategy for 2022-2025 to achieve international recognition for Estonian-produced food by 2025. Our food products deserve to be recognized beyond Estonia’s borders. We have a lot to be proud of. We export high-quality dairy products, non-alcoholic beverages, and other products abroad, but meat products still lack a significant and impressive international success story,” says Simmo Kruustük, Chairman of the Board of the company. “Of course, there is fierce competition. Comprehensive and long-term food recognition programs exist in all neighbouring countries: Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, Denmark, and others. For example, Finland’s food industry development in the coming years is driven by a grand strategy “Food 2030. Finland Feeds Us and the World”. This includes investment in enhancing the national image both in food export and tourism, supporting export promotion activities, popularizing Finnish food globally, developing collaboration in the food industry, contributing to sustainability and environmental protection goals, and supporting food supply chain operations. In Estonia’s external trade, food products still make up a very small portion, and nearly a third of agricultural products are exported as raw materials. The more raw materials used locally, the better for everyone. We believe that tasty food is an important component of a successful national promotion.”
Over the years, Nõo Meat Factory’s exports have accounted for 25% of the company’s total turnover. There are few international success stories among Estonian meat products, but there is much to learn, for example, from Spain, which has successfully marketed its products. There are few stores worldwide without Spanish chorizo or cured ham. Although Spanish cuisine is very old, Spaniards only established a separate consortium in 2015 to support chorizo sales globally, and now this product is achieving significant international success.
“Estonia also needs to choose its food product that could become the country’s ambassador. I dare to say that this untapped export potential could be the well-known Estonian full-dried sausage, which could similarly be marketed in other countries,” reflects Kruustük.
Nõo Meat Factory has prepared a comprehensive export plan for presenting its meat products beyond the Baltic borders. To this end, feedback is continually gathered from consumers, top chefs, food experts, universities, and foreign markets are carefully analyzed.
Nõo Meat Factory already successfully exports to countries such as Latvia, Lithuania, and Finland, with products available both on land and in the air – i.e., on airplanes. Shortly, new markets and product lines will be added. The goal is to increase the export share by twenty percent. Nõo’s full-dried sausages are produced using a unique technology developed by us. Therefore, we can confidently claim that full-dried sausages have the potential to be Estonia’s food ambassador worldwide. “All our products are smoked in genuine alder wood smoke. We do not use liquid smoke, which is not a traditional meat preparation method. We make our products based on the experience and Estonian traditions we have accumulated over the years,” says Kruustük. “Nõo’s strategic choice is to always produce products from fresh, chilled meat purchased from local farms, and not to use mechanically separated chicken meat or unhealthy food additives. We reduce the salt content and maintain a high meat content in the products. We do not use flavour enhancer E621 or monosodium glutamate in production.”
