The All-Ukrainian Bakers’ Association (VAP) and the Union of Millers of Ukraine In 2024, for the second year in a row, they refused to sign a memorandum with the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food and grain associations due to disregard for the interests and arguments of processors, said VAP head Alexander Taranenko in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
“A memorandum is a document for which no one bears legal responsibility for violating. In addition, the VAP and the Ukrainian Millers’ Union opposed the volumes specified in the memorandum (a limit on grain exports of 16.2 million tons), as this leads to the export of very large volumes of food grain from Ukraine, which significantly affects domestic bread prices,” he explained.
Taranenko emphasized that processing enterprises insist on distinguishing between food and feed grain when fixing grain export volumes. At the same time, they have nothing against the export of feed grain in any quantity, since Ukraine grows more than enough of it.
Speaking about food grain, the expert noted that in recent years, as a result of various events – climate change, military actions and economic situations – the quality of the grain harvest in Ukraine has significantly deteriorated.
“While in 2020, food wheat accounted for 57% of the harvest, in 2024 it will account for only 27%. Accordingly, the volume of grain suitable for processing is even smaller, because the aforementioned 57% and 27% include wheat of the first, second, and third grades. Not all third-grade wheat is suitable for processing into flour. This means that less than 20% of the total harvest in 2024 was suitable for processing into flour,” Taranenko stated.
According to him, these nuances are completely ignored by grain experts. At the beginning of the harvest, the first wave of exports to foreign markets includes a large amount of food wheat, which causes an increase in domestic bread prices.
If the authorities had taken certain measures, such as introducing export segmentation, forming domestic reserves, creating state reserves or financing their creation, the rise in bread prices would not have been so significant and sharp, the head of the industry association is convinced.
Taranenko recalled that the State Reserve, the Agrarian Fund, and the State Food and Grain Company had previously operated on this principle. They bought grain at reasonable prices during mass sales, stored it, processed it, and when prices rose sharply, they intervened in the market by putting a certain amount of flour up for sale and holding back price increases.
“This mechanism existed and worked quite well. It was abandoned because mice ate tens of thousands of tons of grain. In fact, this does not indicate the ineffectiveness of the mechanism, but rather insufficient control. The mechanism itself is capable of ensuring the stability of bread prices and sales,” the head of the VAP summed up.
Bakers' Association, Rising bread prices, state intervention
The DIM Group of Companies is launching its own long-term installment program in hryvnia with an annual interest rate of 10% for the purchase of housing in the developer’s projects, the group’s press service told Interfax-Ukraine.
“We are approached by buyers who dream of owning their own apartment or need to improve their living conditions, but for one reason or another do not qualify for government programs. It is for them that we have developed a new product to meet the growing demand among Ukrainians who cannot take advantage of the state program “eOselya” but are interested in purchasing quality housing in the “comfort+” segment and above,” said Alexander Nasirovsky, managing partner of the DIM group of companies, in a statement.
Under the terms of the program, the installment plan is provided for a period of 10 years with the possibility of early repayment. The price per square meter is fixed in the contract in hryvnia. The down payment is 30% of the cost. The interest rate is 10% per annum, and for military personnel, State Emergency
Service employees, and military medics, it is 8%.
The developer will test the pilot installment plan in the capital’s residential complexes Metropolis, Lucky Land, and Park Lake City, as well as on a limited basis in the Olegiv Podil club house in June-July to assess real demand among citizens. DIM plans to scale the program to all of the developer’s residential projects.
As reported, the DIM group of companies notes the advisability of increasing the maximum loan amount issued under the state program “eOselya” in proportion to the growth in the cost per square meter. According to Nasykovsky, in 2025, the cost of housing will grow by 15-20%.
The DIM development company’s portfolio consists of real estate in Kiev and the surrounding area with a total area of more than 900,000 square meters. More than 3,600 apartments have been commissioned, and more than 356,000 square meters of residential and commercial space has been built. Six projects with a total area of over 346,000 square meters are currently under construction.
As of June 11, Ukraine had exported 39.256 million tons of grains and legumes since the beginning of the 2024-2025 marketing year (July-June), of which 884,000 tons were shipped since the beginning of the current month, according to the press service of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, citing data from the State Customs Service.
According to the report, as of June 12 last year, total shipments were estimated at 48.381 million tons, including 1.449 million tons in June.
At the same time, since the beginning of the current season, 15.184 million tons of wheat (17.839 million tons in 2023/2024 MY) have been exported, 2.312 million tons of barley (2.437 million tons), 10.8 thousand tons of rye (1.6 thousand tons), and 21.169 million tons of corn (27.57 million tons). (1.6 thousand tons), corn – 21.169 million tons (27.57 million tons).
Total exports of Ukrainian flour since the beginning of the season as of June 11 are estimated at 66.7 thousand tons (in 2023/24 MY – 94.6 thousand tons), including wheat flour – 62.3 thousand tons (89.3 thousand tons).
On June 11, Kirovogradoblenergo announced a tender for compulsory motor third-party liability insurance.
According to the Prozorro electronic procurement system, the expected price for the services is UAH 900,000. The deadline for submitting applications is July 19. The winner of a similar tender a year ago was SK VUSO.
The All-Ukrainian Bakers Association (VAP) expects bread prices in the country to rise by 20% by the end of 2025, but this is unlikely to undermine the budget of Ukrainian families, its head Oleksandr Taranenko said in an interview with the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if that happens. Everything is moving in that direction,” he said.
“I won’t be surprised if that happens. Everything is heading in that direction,” he said.
Speaking about the 20% prospect of bread price increases, Taranenko said that the current wholesale price of 1 kg of bread from a bakery is slightly more than 40 hryvnia. At the same time, supermarkets’ margins on bread, using various marketing mechanisms, sometimes reach 30%, although by law they should not exceed 10%.
“Let’s not take domestic statistics into account — they do not reflect reality due to the existence of a ‘shadow’ market and other nuances. Objectively, Ukrainians currently consume 150-200 g of bread per day, or about 5 kg per month. Thus, every month, Ukrainian citizens spend 200-210 UAH on bread. If the price increases by 20% per year, people will spend 40 UAH more on bread every month. Yes, for our pensioners and other low-income groups, 40 hryvnia is a lot of money. However, to say that 40 hryvnia per month will undermine the budget of a Ukrainian family would probably be an exaggeration,” the expert stressed.
Among the reasons for the rise in bread prices, he cited increases in the prices of all components of the product—flour, yeast, fats, and sugar. Added to these are the cost of electricity, logistics, and the state’s requirement for enterprises that are critical to the economy and have the right to reserve personnel to raise salaries to 20,000 hryvnia.
“After taxes, people will receive 16,000 hryvnia. Previously, the average salary in our business was 13-15-16 thousand hryvnia, regardless of the enterprise. You must agree that this is not a high salary. But when someone says that bakers are getting rich, this is not the case at all. A salary increase of even 20-30% is a significant increase in production costs, while we are unable to increase our income,” the expert explained, adding that the profitability of the bread business is currently slightly above zero, and for some types of bread, it is below zero.
Taranenko cited State Statistics Service data, according to which there are over 3,000 registered bread producers in Ukraine.
“Let’s say that not all of them are currently operating for various reasons, but even if only 2,000 of them are operating, it is nonsense to imagine that they have all conspired to make excessive profits,” said the head of the VPP, rejecting the idea of an industry conspiracy to raise bread prices in Ukraine.
According to the results of January-March of this year, PJSC Ukrainian Graphite (Ukrgrafit, Zaporizhia) increased its net loss by 80.6% compared to the same period last year, from UAH 36.466 million to UAH 65.870 million.
According to the company’s interim report, net income for this period decreased by 1.6% to UAH 296.640 million.
The company’s undistributed profit at the end of March amounted to UAH 3 billion 599.831 million.
Ukrgrafit ended 2024 with a net loss of UAH 202.447 million, while in 2023 it increased its net profit by 2.34 times compared to 2022, to UAH 122.920 million.
Ukrgrafit is a leading Ukrainian manufacturer of graphite electrodes for electric steel melting, ore-thermal and other types of electric furnaces, commercial carbon masses for Soderberg electrodes, and carbon-based refractory materials for metallurgical, machine-building, chemical, and other industrial complexes.
According to the National Depository of Ukraine (NDU) for the first quarter of 2025, Intergraphite Holdings Company Limited (Malta) owns 23.9841% of the private joint-stock company, and C6 Safe Group Limited (Cyprus) owns 72.0394%.
The authorized capital of the private joint-stock company is UAH 233.959 million, and the nominal value of a share is UAH 3.35.
