Nestle, the world's largest food group, said it has reopened its factories and warehouses in central and western Ukraine in a bid to secure essential food and drink supplies in the war-torn country.
The Swiss-based group, which has three factories and some 5,000 employees in Ukraine, temporarily closed operations on Thursday following the invasion of Russian forces in the biggest assault on a European state since World War II.
"We are trying to reopen parts of the supply chain and distribute to retailers in areas where it is safe to do so. The latest information is that this was partially possible," a Nestle spokesman told Reuters.
Ukraine closed its ports on Thursday after the Russian invasion, raising fears that the country could end up facing food shortages due to the impossibility of importing products.
Nestlé, maker of flagship products such as Nescafe and Kit Kat, said that while most of the food products it sells in Ukraine are produced locally, some raw materials used in their manufacture, such as coffee and cocoa, are imported.
A trader at one of the world's biggest commodity trading houses told Reuters he is having to redirect all the coffee he had destined for Ukraine as no shipping lines are ready to carry goods there.
