There may be only 120 Belgians in Ukraine, but they have a secret weapon that spreads the popularity of their small nation among locals – delicious Belgian waffles.
There may be only 120 Belgians in Ukraine, but they have a secret weapon that spreads the popularity of their small nation among locals – delicious Belgian waffles.
Some 2000 sweet vanilla and cinnamon treats are sold across Kyiv every day from kiosks run by the company Gofre, founded in 2008 by two Belgians who wanted to capitalize on their country’s specialty.
One of the co-owners, Miguel Iribarren, is a 50-year-old cook who came to Ukraine in 2008 after selling his restaurant in Brussels to start a waffle adventure abroad.
He was invited by Etienne Vauthier, a Belgian who switched from real estate to waffle kiosks when Kyiv’s housing market plummeted in 2008.
As for most Western firms, the toughest problem for Belgian companies is finding the right local partners.
“While 80 percent of the Belgian economy is small- and medium-sized businesses, those who want to experiment in Ukraine usually can’t afford the unconsidered risks,” said Jana Zikmundova, the ambassador of Belgium in Ukraine.
Gofre, however, had a head start. Vauthier hired some people from his real estate team to start the waffle trade, so he could have a team that he could trust. Iribarren said this was crucial to the company’s success.
While Iribarren was adapting the recipe of Liege waffles to Ukrainian tastes, his partner was solving issues with numerous state inspections to open their business.
The first waffle from Gofre (from the French word “gauffre,” meaning “waffle”) appeared in Kyiv three years ago on July 21, just in time for Belgium’s National holiday that celebrates the inauguration of the first king of the Belgians after the country gained independence from the Netherlands in 1830.
“The only item that we import [to make our waffles] is Belgian sugar,” said Iribarren, who makes all the waffles himself in his bakery near Shuliavska metro station “with no preservatives or flavor enhancers.”
The special Belgian pearl sugar, unique to the country, is made from refined beet sugar, which is compacted under very high pressure. It doesn’t melt in the waffles but becomes soft and sweet in the mouth.
The dough is then frozen and distributed to the 30 selling points in Kyiv where the waffles are baked spreading the delicious aroma. Gofre also sold franchises to Lviv and Skadovsk and has three kiosks in Moscow.
At the end of 2011, the Belgian duo plans to open their first selling point in Shanghai.
“We dream globally. …But Kyiv remains our hub for producing waffles for now, as it’s advantageous for the costs,” Irribaren said.
There is another reason why expanding to other countries is a good idea.
“Five Gofre kiosks in Kyiv were lifted and taken away [by the Kyiv municipal services] even though the documents were in order,” Iribarren said.
“Of course, this kind of behavior scares away Belgians who are interested in investing in Ukraine,” said Katerina Bassova, 35, president of the Belgian-Ukrainian chamber of commerce that was established last year and so far has 30 members.
Belgians, however, have their own peculiarities, the understanding of which is important to have the good economic ties that are now marked by a modest annual bilateral trade turnover of 800 million euros.
For example, the endless squabbling between Dutch-speaking Flanders in the north and and French-speaking Wallonia in the south manifested itself all the way in Ukraine.
“It used to be that there were separate representatives for trade at the embassy for Wallonia and Flanders. … When the department was reduced to only one Wallonian representative, businessmen from Flanders were much less interested in Ukraine,” Bassova said.
The nature of Flanders and Wallonia’s disputes lays in the economic inequalities, where Flanders is more powerful economically than Wallonia, as well as the linguistic divide.
The country has had no government for more than a year with warring factions unable to form a coalition and previous prime minister Yves Leterme, continues to head a caretaker government.
“The problems with the government during the last three years are, of course, unpleasant…but it doesn’t change much for the average lives of Belgians”, said Bassova who travels often back and forth. “It isn’t comparable to Ukraine being without a government,” she added.
Bassova, a native of Cherkasy, has first-hand knowledge of Belgium. When her family was going through a difficult time in 1993, she was sent as a 17-year-old to Belgium to a distant family friend, instead of attending a medical school in Ukraine.
“The first four years were very difficult. … I would clean houses and wash dishes in the morning and take classes in logistics and economics in the evenings. My dream was not to clean the toilets, but do professional work,” Bassova reflected.
Having started work in a transportation company in the port of Antwerp, she met a Belgian who ran a logistics company in Dnipropetrovsk and invited her to manage a project in Ukraine.
After moving to Ukraine, she also set up an agricultural company for the same investor growing wheat. In 2006, she left the business and now helps Belgians access Ukraine’s market.
“As I didn’t choose to move to Belgium, I don’t regret coming back to Ukraine,” she said.
And because of two entrepreneurs from Belgium, she doesn’t have to go without her sweetest memory from her time there – waffles.
Location: Western Europe, bordering the North Sea, between France and the Netherlands
Population: 10,4 million
Major cities by population: 1.9 million in Brussels; 961,000 in Antwerp (2009 figures)
Ethnic groups: Fleming 58 %, Walloon 31%,
Languages: Dutch (official) 60%, French (official) 40%, legally bilingual (Dutch and French
Belgian export to Ukraine: 510,6 million euros in 2010
Exported products: Chemicals, machines, plastic materials, food products
Ukrainian export to Belgium: 283,2 millions euros in 2010
Imported products: Grain, minerals, metals, textiles
Kyiv Post staff writer Katya Grushenko can be reached at [email protected].
