During the war, about 70 new wineries appeared in Ukraine, which was made possible by significant improvements in legislation, according to Volodymyr Pechko, head of the Association of Gardeners, Winegrowers, and Winemakers of Ukraine.
“Over the past 4.5 years, thanks to improvements in legislation and climate change, we have seen a 70% increase in the number of wineries… The approximate figure is around 70 new enterprises. They have come out of the shadows, started paying taxes, and officially hired people. Small châteaux have begun to develop in Ukraine. There have never been small wine-producing enterprises in Ukraine, either during the Soviet era or since the country became independent,” he said at the Agro2Food exhibition.
The head of the industry association recalled that previously, in order to obtain a license to produce wine, it was necessary to pay about UAH 500,000. After the transition to a simplified registration procedure for wine-producing enterprises, this procedure became more affordable, and anyone who wishes to do so can obtain a license in two weeks.
After the boom in the creation of small domestic châteaux began, according to the expert, winemakers began to lack raw materials and, accordingly, vineyards.
According to Pechko’s estimates, there are currently about 20,000 hectares of vineyards in Ukraine, of which 5,000 hectares were planted during the war. These statistics do not take into account the occupied territories in Crimea, Kherson, and Mykolaiv regions.
The head of the association said that global warming has given Ukrainian winegrowers the opportunity to plant vineyards in regions that are not typical for viticulture. As an example, he cited the Kyiv region, where about 10 licensed wine-producing enterprises operate. They grow their own raw materials in the Kyiv region and purchase the necessary volumes in the Odesa and Mykolaiv regions.
Domestic winemakers, he noted, are forced to actively import foreign alcohol, mainly from Moldova and Georgia, where viticulture is more developed.
Pechko also said that the creation of an isotope analysis laboratory in the Odesa region had a positive impact on the industry. It allows enterprises to check the wine material from which factories produce higher quality products.
“Thanks to the revitalization of processing enterprises, grape growing has become profitable. While in 2023 the cost of 1 kg of grapes for processing was 5-8 UAH, in 2024-2025 it reached 18-25 UAH, which stimulated the planting of vineyards,” the expert noted, adding that Ukrainian wine exports are still low.
“It is too early to say that we are great exporters and ready to conquer Europe. We need to do this, but we need to protect our own market more. We need to make high-quality products and compete with them in Ukraine,” concluded the head of the Association of Gardeners, Winegrowers, and Winemakers of Ukraine.
In Ukraine, 88 flour milling enterprises have resumed work since the beginning of the full-scale war, with 22 enterprises starting work in 2024 and 10 in 2025, said Rodion Rybchinsky, director of the Union “Flour Mills of Ukraine”.
“As of the end of 2021, there were 678 industrial enterprises in Ukraine that worked in the grain processing industry. Unfortunately, during the full-scale invasion we lost 192 enterprises. They either remained in the temporarily occupied territories, or destroyed to the ground and stopped their work, or enterprises that were partially affected, or due to lack of raw materials, logistics capabilities suspended work,” he said during the Agro2Food exhibition in Kiev on Wednesday.
The expert noted that starting from 2023, Ukraine has begun to restore the grain processing industry. Rybchynskyy named the problem with grain exports in 2022 as the reason for this.
“Many agricultural producers saw a way out of the situation in opening grain processing facilities. They invested their funds. In addition, the state began to provide grants for restoration and for increasing processing capacity,” he explained.
According to Rybczynski, since the start of the full-scale war, 66 grain processing enterprises have resumed their work, while 22 enterprises started working from scratch in 2024. At the same time, about 10 grain processing plants were launched in 2025.
Analyzing the specialization of new plants, the head of the Union “Flour Mills of Ukraine” noted that 40% of new enterprises are engaged in the production of flour, 30% produce cereals, another 30% – pasta. Geographically, the new enterprises are located in western and central Ukraine.
Rybchynskyy emphasized that it is the construction of new plants, not relocation, because processing companies depend on the existing raw material base and consumers. He also noted the difficulty with transportation of mills, search for a new land plot.
According to the estimation of the head of the Union “Flour Mills of Ukraine” the cost of relocation of a mill costs its owners about $1 million. According to Rybchynskyy, grain processing enterprises that relocated their capacities can be “counted on the fingers of one hand”.
The expert added that as of 2024 Ukraine produced 2.34 million tons of flour, which is 22% less than in 2021 before the war, when the state produced 3 million tons.
