UKRAINIANS LEARN FROM LOCAL PLANT’S SUCCESSBy Lisa Miller
Three members of the
delegation of food processing managers The scent of apple butter and the electricity of ideas were in the air Tuesday morning when a group of Ukrainian food processing managers came to call at Cooper’s Mill. Pausing frequently so that translator Sasha Etlin could turn his English into Russian, mill owner David Cooper answered questions and explained the workings of the North Sandusky Avenue facility to the 16-member delegation. They peppered Cooper with questions on everything from state regulations to the amount of fruit pectin in the jams and jellies the mill distributes in 36 states. The men and women who recorded his answers in note books are from Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine. They are in this country for three weeks as part of a United States Agency for International Development program. The Bucyrus store and manufacturing plant were part of a tour that will take the group to 24 different plants in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and New York. The marketing, technology and management study tour was arranged by the Center for Economic Initiatives, a non-profit organization headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. Miriam Cooper listened as her husband recalled how their business has grown from a few families producing 16 ½ gallons of apple butter to a company that makes 14,000 gallons a year. She said they got a call a few months ago requesting a tour to show the Ukrainian visitors a small business in action. Dr. Belal Siddique was with the group as tour manager. "We are trying to encourage small business," he said as the Coopers showed their guests the apple butter making operation. "First under the Russian tsar and later the Soviet Union, Ukrainian businesses were told what, when and how to produce," he explained. "They were all spoon fed," said Siddique, who has led similar tours that have reportedly helped participating firms increase their efficiency.
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