At the beginning of the 2025-2026 marketing year (July-June), the agricultural sector is actively reviewing salaries, with 79% of agricultural companies having already raised staff salaries and another 21% planning to do so by the end of 2025, according to the results of a study by Agrohub.
According to the study, the agronomic service is showing the highest income growth rates among key personnel categories: 81% of companies have raised agronomists’ salaries by 15-25%.
In engineering services, the majority (among 54% of companies) of salary increases were within 20%, among 18% of companies, incomes increased by more than 25%, and among another 18%, incomes remained unchanged.
A similar balance is observed among elevator personnel, where companies’ approaches range from moderate indexation to no change at all. In the land service, indexation of approximately 15% prevails (63% of companies), 27% increased income by 20-25%, and another 18% added more than 25% to salaries.
Among the survey participants who have already reviewed their employees’ income for 2025, 55% of companies have livestock farming in their business structure. The dynamics in this area vary: while in dairy and beef cattle farming, employees’ incomes have increased by 15-20% on average, there have been virtually no changes in pig farming.
In addition, among personnel on a combined form of payment (fixed + piecework), the largest increase in income was among machine operators (mainly by more than 25%), drivers — up to 20%, and colleagues from elevators — up to 15%. Furthermore, an analysis of piecework rates shows that they increased by 10–20% for machine operators and drivers, and by up to 15% for elevator personnel.
At the same time, most survey participants raised salaries starting in April 2025. Among the main reasons, companies cite the alignment of wages with market rates, competition for personnel, inflation expectations, and better-than-expected financial results for the season.
“We see that the labor market in the agricultural sector is proactive. Agronomists remain a key category for business, and companies are willing to invest in their motivation. The preference now is for increasing the salary component: it is more expensive for the employer, but more effective for retaining staff,” said Dmitry Lebedev, head of Agrohub Benchmarking, whose words are quoted in the report.
Agrohub conducted the HR360 Benchmarking study “Changes in the income levels of crop, livestock, and elevator personnel in 2025” in July 2025 among the 14 largest agricultural holdings in Ukraine with a total land bank of about 2 million hectares and a staff of more than 65,000 people.
Over the past three and a half years, Ukraine has received more than $145 billion in international financial aid, which has allowed it to maintain macro-financial stability amid a full-scale war and guarantee all necessary social spending, Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko said during a series of bilateral meetings with finance and economy ministers from G7 countries and the EU, representatives of the European Commission and the IMF on September 20 in Copenhagen.
“Given that the war continues, the challenges for the financial system remain, and continued external support is extremely important. In 2025 alone, more than $30.6 billion in external financing has already been attracted, and the need for the current year is $39.3 billion,” the Ministry of Finance quoted him as saying in a press release on its website.
It is noted that the minister discussed with his colleagues options for additional financial support for Ukraine, in particular, the possibility of implementing the European Commission’s recently presented initiative on a reparations loan guaranteed by frozen Russian assets.
As specified by the Ministry of Finance, as part of the G7 Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration for Ukraine (ERA) initiative worth $50 billion, Ukraine has received about $23 billion from its partners since the end of last year from the proceeds of frozen Russian assets.
Marchenko noted the support of the Canadian and EU governments for the initiative. In particular, Canada’s contribution to ERA is CAD 5 billion (about $3.4 billion), and the EU’s contribution is EUR 18.1 billion (about $20 billion).
In addition, the minister stressed that the government continues to work on implementing the necessary reforms for the implementation of the EU’s Ukraine Facility financial instrument for 2024-2027 in the amount of EUR 50 billion, within which more than EUR 22.6 billion has already been raised.
The Ministry of Finance specified that negotiations were held with Canadian Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne, Danish Minister of Economy Stephanie Løse, European Commissioner for Financial Services, Savings, and Investments Maria Luisa Albuquerque, and Director of the IMF’s European Department Alfred Kemmer. The parties discussed the state of Ukraine’s financial system, budgetary needs for 2026, new mechanisms for budgetary support for Ukraine, and reforms.
In particular, Marchenko discussed with Kämmer the possibility of launching a new cooperation program with the IMF by the end of the year, a request for which the Ukrainian side recently sent to the Fund.
Earlier, the finance minister estimated Ukraine’s external financing needs in 2026 at $45.5 billion, and the total amount of external financing required for the period of the new four-year program with the IMF at $150 to $170 billion.
As reported, the current four-year EFF extended financing program with the IMF in the amount of $15.6 billion, which was approved in March 2023, initially provided for a total of $115 billion in external financing for Ukraine with the participation of international partners in the baseline scenario and $140 billion in the negative scenario, but with the delay in entering the war, these figures were increased to $153 billion and $165 billion, respectively.
Foreigners are actively buying housing in Bulgaria, forming a significant share of transactions in the real estate market, according to local specialized associations and agencies.
According to the Bulgarian Real Estate Association, in 2024-2025 the greatest interest is shown by citizens of the UK, Germany, Greece, Israel, Romania and Ukraine. The most demanded objects on the Black Sea coast (Varna, Burgas, Nessebar) and in mountain regions popular for winter tourism (Bansko, Pamporovo).
Top 10 countries of real estate buyers in Bulgaria (2024-2025):
UK
Germany
Greece
Israel
Romania
Turkey
Italy
Russia
Ukraine
Poland
Experts note that the demand of foreigners stimulates the growth of prices: over the year the cost of housing in seaside resorts increased by 8-10% on average, in Sofia – by 6-7%. Apartments in new buildings in the middle segment (from €60 thousand), as well as apartments for rent to tourists remain popular.
Ukrainians are firmly entrenched in the top ten foreign buyers: their interest is due to both temporary relocation because of the war, and investment motives – the possibility of renting out housing in resort cities.
At the same time analysts predict further growth of demand from citizens of Ukraine and Israel, as well as revival of interest from EU countries, where housing prices are much higher than in Bulgaria.
Ukrainian businessmen and representatives of the diaspora will remain the main investors in the Ukrainian hotel market in 2023–2025, according to Apartel Resorts partner Yevgeny Kudryavchenko in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
“We are seeing activity from local entrepreneurs who are looking for long-term investment opportunities. At the same time, Ukrainians who work abroad and want to invest in their homeland are increasingly showing interest. Foreign funds are still taking a wait-and-see approach, but interest in the segment has already emerged,” he said.
According to the expert, in the coming years, we can expect a gradual expansion of the circle of investors, including foreign development companies and real estate funds.
Apartel resorts is a development company specializing in apart-hotel and hotel real estate projects in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian baking industry operates in a highly competitive environment with low profitability, according to Oleksandr Taranenko, president of the All-Ukrainian Bakers Association.
“We bakers only know about 10% profitability from stories. Most companies operate with a margin of 5%, and sometimes even lower. At the same time, costs are constantly rising. For example, the rise in electricity prices has added 1% to the cost price, and this increase cannot be immediately passed on to the price – it takes months,” he said.
According to him, this is why forecasts of a 15-20% increase in the price of mass-market bread are not related to manufacturers’ desire to increase profits, but to the need to compensate for increased costs.
“Bakers are forced to raise prices. This is not an attempt to make a profit, but an attempt to survive. When production costs rise and prices cannot be changed quickly, companies simply go into the red,” Taranenko emphasized.
Afina Group LLC, whose beneficiaries are Ruslan Shostak and Valery Kiptik, co-owners of the EVA and Varus chains, paid UAH 608.1 million for 100% of the shares of the privatized Vinnytsia Pobythkhim PJSC, according to the press service of the State Property Fund of Ukraine (SPFU).
“Once again, we are seeing a positive outcome of large-scale privatization: a nationalized asset that previously belonged to a Russian business subject to sanctions has returned to the Ukrainian economy. This is a double victory for the state: we are eliminating the influence of the aggressor country and at the same time receiving more than UAH 600 million, which has already been transferred to the budget and will be used for the country’s recovery. Privatization shows that even in the difficult conditions of war, we can attract investment, preserve jobs, and create new opportunities for business and economic development in general,” emphasized Ivanna Smachylo, acting head of the SPFU.
The funds have already been transferred to the budget and will be directed to the Fund for the Elimination of the Consequences of Armed Aggression for the restoration of the country.
As reported, in August, AFINA Group won an online auction for the privatization of the nationalized Vinnytsia Chemical Plant, offering UAH 608.136 million against the initial price of UAH 301.406 million.
Earlier it was reported that on July 31, 2024, the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) upheld the Ministry of Justice’s claim to apply sanctions to the Russian JSC Nevskaya Kosmetika in the form of confiscating 100% of the shares of the Ukrainian PJSC Vinnytsia Pobyutkhim to the state.
In July 2022, the seized assets of Vinnytsia Pobyutkhim were transferred to the National Agency for the Detection, Investigation, and Management of Assets Derived from Corruption and Other Crimes (ARMA).
As a result of a competitive selection process held in July 2023, the right to resume operations and become the asset manager was granted to Kraytex-Service LLC, part of the Afina Group. Kraytex-Service later announced that it would invest UAH 400 million in launching production at Vinnytsia Pobyutkhim.
ARMA ceased management of the asset in April 2025 and transferred it to the State Property Fund of Ukraine for further sale. According to the National Agency, during the period of management of the seized asset, almost UAH 100 million was transferred to the state budget.
While managing the plant, Afina Group launched production of its own brands, Vuhastyk and Sarmix, at its facilities. As previously commented to Interfax-Ukraine, the company plans to continue production of these brands after completing all the stages of ownership registration required by law: settlement of accounts and signing of a purchase and sale agreement with the State Property Fund, passing a comprehensive check on the participant’s compliance with the requirements of the law, confirmation of the absence of prohibitions and sanctions, as well as the official transfer of the object to the new owner.
According to data from YouControl, in the first half of 2025, Afina Group LLC increased its revenue by 10.8% to UAH 1 billion 517.25 million, with a net loss of UAH 156.09 million compared to a net profit of UAH 44.01 million in the first half of 2024.
