People vs Savushkin Product: Sell Your Milk In Zimbabwe!

Internet users have been fighting a war on the Facebook page of the Savushkin Product company for several weeks.

Brest producers of milk and yoghurt were those who radically opposed the Belarusian language on the labels of products. The producers explained this by the fact that the development of a new package will increase the cost of the product, which will lead to higher prices.

Regardless of all further requests and inquiries, Savushkin's management does accommodate with clients.

As a result, Facebook users started visiting the Savushkin Product’s page and rate them. Over 1 000 people have rated the company by now. The average rate of the Savushkin Product fell from 5 to 1,9. Herein, 828 FB users picked the lowest possible rate.

According to Facebook rules, it is not enough to just rate something. It is necessary to leave a small comment on a company’s work. The consumers’ comments are no worse than a thriller-novel.

Nasha Niva offers a small compilation for your attention.

“I didn’t take sides in the dispute with the Savushkin Product, I just want to say — I don’t care what language is on the label, but they shouldn’t have opposed the offer with the Belarusian-language labels so radically. By this adherence to principles, they have rather marred than improved their image,” — Siarhei Ustsinau from Minsk writes.

Many consumers are also concerned about the fact the date 1795 — the year of the last partition of Rzeczpospolita and the final occupation of the Belarusian territories by the Russian Empire — is indicated on the Brest-Litovsk milk label.

“Give up, sprinkle ashes upon your head and make Belarusian-language labels. The sooner you do it, the less money you will lose,”— Pavel Siasitski from Vitsebsk reacted.

“I have boycotted their products since recently. It’s a shame that the opinions of consumers from Belarus are regarded as nothing more than flies’ buzz. Disrespect upsets! If you place the Belarusian-language labels on your products, I will lift the boycott off you,” — Minsk lawyer Aleh Aheyeu promised.

“As Savushkin Product has no money to order Belarusian-language labels, I have no money to purchase their products. Farewell!” — Pavel Kulik from Hrodna wrote.

“Since long ago, I have excluded Savushkin Product from the assortment of the dairy products that I eat — I prefer tastier dairy. I used to buy the “Liogkiy” sliced cheese, but the slices so tightly stick to the paper which is intended to separate one cheese slice from the other, due to some reason, that I got tired of putting the paper away and decided not to buy it anymore. As for the story with languages — it’s a disgrace,” — Sviatlana Mikhalouskaya from Minsk believes.

Besides, Savushkin case is not the first of the kind. Lida Beer also disputed with consumers about the Belarusian language for a while, but made certain conclusions from the discussion and began to produce products with the Belarusian logo. Moreover, it produced a series of "Miensk" beer with different dates. For instance, the beer "Miensk 1918" makes some explode with anger. Nevertheless, the world still goes round, the beer didn’t get more expensive, the assortment grew,” — Viktar Yuntsevich notes.

“I'm from Russia. However, if the company does not respect the title language of the nation and neglects the interests of the Belarusians, what should we, the Russians, expect? It’s not a surprise you were caught on poor-quality products. And you do not care about consumers and quality. With this approach, you should close the business in the Russian market as well. Go sell your milk in Zimbabwe!” — Yuri Gravin from Moscow wrote.

“Milk in Belarusian is tastier than milk in Russian,” — Andrei Shyrvel thinks.

“My cat eats no dairy produced by Savushkin Product. She is used to milk in Belarusian, and they only have milk in Russian. I offered her a package of the cottage cheese in Russian to lick, but she refused, having demanded the Belarusian version. You cannot fool an animal! So we stopped buying this stuff,” — Siarhei Yatsevich from Minsk said ironically.

“Each product should be primarily aimed at the needs of consumers, rather than some "principles" of the manufacturer. And language is the main indicator that the manufacturer really cares about the comfort of potential consumers. Therefore, until the Belarusian language appears on Savushkin's packages, I will ignore their products. Moreover, this segment of the economy makes it possible to make the appropriate choice,” — Kiryl Kastsian remarked.

“I do not think anything about the Savushkin page. But the quality of products really got worse. I used to purchase their products constantly. Now I do not buy much. It’s not even about the language, but about the quality of the products (I can only speak about what I consume - cottage cheese, kefir, yoghurts)", — Yury Fralou wrote.

It is noteworthy that positive comments on Savushkin Product page were posted by the employees of the company.