Food giant Nestle has said it will continue to sell “essential” products, including Nesquik and Cheerios breakfast cereals, in Russia but stressed it is not making a profit from these operations.
It comes after Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, called out the Swiss firm over the weekend for still doing business in Russia despite the invasion.
Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, also criticised bosses at Nestle for having “no understanding” over the impact of staying in the Russian market.
Earlier in March, the company stopped shipments of non-essential products, such as Nescafe pods, to Russia.
However, the company is continuing to sell a raft of items it considers essential, including baby food, nutrition products, pet food and cereals.
The group’s breakfast cereals business is part of a joint venture with US food group General Mills covering about 120 countries, which last week said it was halting Russian investment.
A spokeswoman for Nestle said: “We have significantly scaled back our activities in Russia: we have stopped all imports and exports from Russia, except for essential products.
“The fact that we, like other food companies, supply the population with important food does not mean that we simply continue as before.”
Nestle, which employs about 7,000 people in Russia, said it is no longer making investments or advertising in the country.
The company also stressed that it is pumping money into humanitarian causes linked to the conflict.
“At the same time, we are doing whatever we can in Ukraine and neighbouring countries to help alleviate this humanitarian catastrophe,” the spokeswoman said.
“Our colleagues in Ukraine are doing everything they can to help the population with food donations.
“We are still one of the few active food companies in Ukraine and sometimes even manage to distribute food in Kharkiv.”
