An elevator that will be able to store up to 30,000 tons of grain at a time, as well as a dry port, will be built in the Lviv region, according to Maksym Kozytskyi, head of the Lviv Regional Military Administration.
“This is the beginning of a large-scale project that includes hundreds of grain storage facilities throughout Ukraine, a network of dry ports, modern logistics hubs, deep processing plants, bioclusters, new export opportunities, and technological upgrades for the agricultural sector,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
A memorandum of cooperation was signed by the Lviv Regional State Administration, the Lviv Regional Council, the Belz City Council, and AgHoldCo, which, with the support of the UAF Partners investment fund, will finance 80-85% of the project’s cost. The Danish State Export Agency EIFO is also expected to contribute to the financing, thanks to which AgHoldCo intends to secure a $12 million loan for the construction of each elevator.
The contribution of the Belz community is estimated at no less than $3 million for each of the subprojects. This assistance will also include the selection and allocation of land plots, connection of the facility to engineering networks, and tax incentives.
The head of the Lviv Regional State Administration expressed confidence that the construction of the elevator and dry port in the region will provide jobs, help reduce grain transportation costs, and strengthen food security in the Lviv region. In addition, it will be easier for small and medium-sized farms to store grain.
The OKKO Group plans to open a new 60,000-tonne elevator by autumn 2025 and a bioethanol plant in summer 2026, OKKO Group CEO Vasyl Danylyak said in an interview with Tomas Fiala, co-founder of investment company Dragon Capital.
According to him, the company began construction of an 83,000-ton bioethanol plant last year. Only part of its production will be supplied to the domestic market, with the rest intended for export.
“In Ukraine, since May 1 of this year, there have been mandates to add 5% bioethanol to fuel in accordance with European standards, but this share may increase to 10%. Accordingly, after analyzing our market share, we decided to build a plant with a capacity of 83,000 tons. In addition, we worked with American consultants, who are number one in the market, on the format of the plant’s operation. Thanks to this, we chose the best option: it will work partly for our group and partly for export,” said Danylyak.
The CEO emphasized that by the fall of this year, the group of companies plans to complete the construction of a 60,000-ton storage elevator, and in June-July next year, it expects to fully launch the plant.
Danylyak also said that this year OKKO Group closed a deal to buy 17,000 hectares of land in the north of the Ternopil region and the south of the Rivne region, increasing its land bank to 50,000 hectares.
“As of today, we have a total of about 50,000 hectares under cultivation,” the top manager said.
He explained the interest in these regions by the favorable natural and climatic conditions and the best yield indicators compared to other regions.
Danylyak noted that an important component of OKKO’s agricultural portfolio is its partnership with the Gadz-Agro enterprise in the Ternopil region, in which the company acquired a stake in 2023. The enterprise cultivates 26,000 hectares of land and has about 10,000 head of cattle, of which 5,000 are dairy cows. It is also one of the largest horticultural farms in Ukraine, but OKKO decided not to integrate the horticultural part of the business.
OKKO Group unites more than 10 diverse businesses in the fields of manufacturing, trade, construction, insurance, services, and other services. The group’s flagship company is Galnaftogaz, which operates one of the largest petrol station chains in Ukraine under the OKKO brand, with around 400 petrol stations.
The founder and ultimate beneficiary of the group is Vitaliy Antonov.
Vitagro Group is completing the construction of two new silos with a capacity of 11 thousand tons of simultaneous storage at its elevator in Izyaslav district, Khmelnytsky region, and is preparing a 15 thousand ton storage area in grain bins, the company’s press service reports.
According to the report, the total capacity of the elevator will increase to 66 thousand tons of simultaneous storage. The work is scheduled to be completed in early summer 2025 to store the new winter crop.
“We started working on the project in the fall of 2024. At the same time, we contracted equipment and planned the construction schedule. In total, approximately UAH 153 million will be spent on the first stage of the project. As part of the capacity increase, we will not only increase the storage volume but also add another working tower, which will allow us to accept two different crops at the same time and load grain in parallel on rail and road transport. At the same time, the shipment speed will increase from 1400 tons per day to 2300 tons per day,” explained Alexander Kulygin, Director of Grain Storage at Vitagro Group.
Vitagro reminded that it started developing the elevator business in 2017 with the construction of an elevator in Zakupne village, Kamianets-Podilskyi district, Khmelnytskyi region. The group now owns five elevators in Khmelnytsky and Rivne regions with a total capacity of 385 tons of simultaneous storage. The largest of them is in Zakupne. Its current capacity is 106 thousand tons.
Vitagro Group is one of the largest industrial groups in Ukraine with assets in the agricultural, energy, processing, construction and chemical industries. It was founded and has been operating since 1998. It owns enterprises in Khmelnytsky, Rivne, Volyn, Ivano-Frankivsk and Kyiv regions. The company cultivates about 90 thousand hectares of land and is engaged in livestock farming, horticulture, renewable energy, fertilizer and feed production, construction and building materials production. During the full-scale invasion, the group built and launched 5 processing plants. Vitagro is headquartered in Khmelnytsky.
According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs, the ultimate beneficiary of the Vitagro investment company is MP Serhiy Labaziuk (For the Future parliamentary faction).
IT specialists of one of the largest grain market operators in Ukraine, JV Nibulon LLC, together with the IT-Enterprise team, have completed the restart and digitalization of the quantitative and qualitative accounting of the elevator network, the grain trader’s press service reported on its Facebook page.
According to the report, the project to optimize quantitative and qualitative accounting included improvement of business processes for grain accounting, additional processes for logistics management and costing.
“The establishment of a new efficient version of the quantitative and qualitative accounting business process made it possible to automatically track the movement of grain, its key indicators, and the funds spent on processing and transportation from the moment it arrives at the elevator to the shipment to the end consumer. This allows us to calculate the exact cost price and, accordingly, the profitability. And most importantly, we understand what impact can be made at each stage to improve financial and service performance,” said Nibulon’s IT Director Mykola Riasko.
The ultimate goal of the project is to switch to a fully digital elevator model, the principle of which is based on managing and coordinating all processes with digital systems. This concept is gradually being scaled up to all 23 Nibulon elevator complexes.
“If we describe the results of the quantitative and qualitative accounting digitalization project in three theses, firstly, it is the simplification and automation of business processes, and the acceleration of their passage. Secondly, it is the accuracy of accounting, which ensures the clarity and relevance of the company’s financial position. Thirdly, it is more customer-oriented, as the process of providing services has become better and faster,” emphasized Ryasko.
Nibulon added that the digitalization project also contributed to the unification of accounting processes at all branches of the company and improved integration with equipment and third-party systems, which ensured effective management of business processes.
JV Nibulon LLC was established in 1991. Prior to the Russian military invasion, the grain trader had 27 transshipment terminals and crop reception complexes, capacity for simultaneous storage of 2.25 million tons of agricultural products, a fleet of 83 vessels (including 23 tugs), and owned the Mykolaiv Shipyard.
“Before the war, Nibulon cultivated 82 thousand hectares of land in 12 regions of Ukraine and exported agricultural products to more than 70 countries. In 2021, the grain trader exported the highest ever volume of 5.64 million tons of agricultural products, reaching record volumes of supplies to foreign markets in August – 0.7 million tons, in the fourth quarter – 1.88 million tons, and in the second half of the year – 3.71 million tons.
Nibulon’s losses due to Russia’s full-scale military invasion in 2022 exceeded $416 million.
Currently, the grain trader is operating at 32% of capacity, has created a special unit to clear agricultural land of mines, and was forced to move its headquarters from Mykolaiv to Kyiv.
The founder of TAS Group of Companies (TAS), Sergey Tigipko, has announced new business areas for the group: the purchase of a seed plant and elevator with a storage capacity of 40 thousand tons, and the construction of apple processing plants and a railcar building plant.
“We are buying a seed plant and an elevator with 40 thousand tons of storage. We are building a railcar manufacturing plant in Kovel for the European railroad. We are building a plant for processing apples from scratch into apple concentrate,” said Tigipko at the 10th Kyiv International Economic Forum (KIEF).
TAS Group was founded in 1998. Its business interests include the financial sector (banking and insurance segments) and pharmacy, as well as industry, real estate, and venture capital projects.
“TAS Agro, a member of the group, cultivates 83 thousand hectares in Vinnytsia, Kyiv, Kirovohrad, Chernihiv, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Kherson, and Dnipro regions, where it grows soybeans, sunflower, rapeseed, wheat, barley, and corn. In addition, the agroholding is engaged in dairy farming (up to 5.5 thousand heads of cattle) and owns six elevators with a one-time storage capacity of 250 thousand tons.
One of the largest grain market operators in Ukraine, JV Nibulon LLC, has modernized two elevator complexes in Mykolaiv region, the grain trader’s press service reported on its Facebook page.
According to the report, a second transshipment line was built at the Vradiyevsky agricultural complex, which doubled the capacity and changed the scheme of acceptance and shipment. Nibulon expects that instead of 50-80 tons per hour, the complex will be able to unload 150-180 tons per hour.
In addition, the second auto-loading point at this branch was re-equipped: the size of the loading pit was significantly increased, a modern shed with roller shutters was built, transport equipment was replaced, and an automatic process control system was installed on the new equipment.
The agro-industrial complex also expanded the area of concrete roads, which gave farmers a complete route from the laboratory through the weighing room to the loaders. The improvements have significantly reduced the time for unloading grain and enabled us to work with several crops simultaneously.
At the Kolosivsky Elevator branch, the company increased the productivity of the process of unloading grain onto trucks by installing two bins with a capacity of 40 tons each. They allow for quick accumulation and shipment of grain. Four pieces of transportation equipment under the first and second truck unloaders were also replaced.
Nibulon JV LLC was established in 1991. Prior to the Russian military invasion, the grain trader had 27 transshipment terminals and crop reception complexes, a capacity for simultaneous storage of 2.25 million tons of agricultural products, a fleet of 83 vessels (including 23 tugs), and owned the Mykolaiv Shipyard.
“Before the war, Nibulon cultivated 82 thousand hectares of land in 12 regions of Ukraine and exported agricultural products to more than 70 countries. In 2021, the grain trader exported the highest ever volume of 5.64 million tons of agricultural products, reaching record volumes of supplies to foreign markets in August – 0.7 million tons, in the fourth quarter – 1.88 million tons, and in the second half of the year – 3.71 million tons.
Nibulon’s losses due to Russia’s full-scale military invasion in 2022 exceeded $416 million.
Currently, the grain trader is operating at 32% of capacity, has created a special unit to clear agricultural land of mines, and was forced to move its headquarters from Mykolaiv to Kyiv.
