Ukrainian Dairy Company (UMK, Kyiv region) will begin construction of the first phase of the world’s largest robotic farm for group milking in 2026, according to a press release from equipment supplier GEA.
According to the report, the project involves the launch of 60 milking robots, 24 of which will be put into operation in the first phase. A special feature of the complex will be the use of batch milking technology (automated group milking – IF-U), which combines loose housing with automated milking.
“This is a unique project not only for Ukraine but also for the global dairy industry in terms of its scale and the number of innovative solutions implemented. Milking will be performed by DairyRobot R9650 robots manufactured by the German company GEA Farm Technologies GmbH,” said Alexey Antonov, product manager at GEA Ukraine.
The company emphasized that the introduction of a robotic system will reduce labor costs, avoid risky interaction between staff and animals, and ensure individual feeding for each cow. Most of the technological equipment will be located in the basement under the robots, which will minimize the impact of maintenance on the milking process.
Ukrainian Dairy Company LLC (UMK) was founded in 2006. It specializes in the production of extra-class milk based on three branches with a total herd of 12,000 head of cattle (including 4,400 cows). The production capacity of the enterprise is 170 tons of milk per day. The company’s land bank is 11,000 hectares. A biogas station for organic waste disposal and energy generation operates on the farm’s territory. The enterprise has the status of a special raw material zone for the production of baby food. The ultimate beneficiary of the company is Vitaliy Haiduk.
GEA Group AG (Germany) is one of the world’s largest suppliers of systems and technological solutions for the food, pharmaceutical, and dairy industries. GEA has been operating in Ukraine for over 25 years. The group has two local offices in Ukraine, a service department, and a spare parts warehouse.
Four enterprises in Volyn, Rivne, Cherkasy, and Khmelnytskyi regions received UAH 116.3 million in partial state compensation for the construction and reconstruction of six livestock farms, according to the Ministry of Economy, Environment, and Agriculture.
“The state reimbursed up to 25% of the cost of farms, milking parlors, and production facilities for processing by-products that were put into operation,” the ministry said, clarifying the decision of the Ministry of Economy’s commission on state support for the development of livestock farming and agricultural product processing.
It is expected that agricultural producers will be able to keep about 3,000 head of livestock on new and reconstructed farms.
“Supporting livestock farming is an investment in Ukraine’s food security. Enterprises that modernize production and build new facilities in wartime receive real financial assistance from the state. This year, we have reimbursed up to 25% of the cost of facilities that have been put into operation since the beginning of the year,” said Deputy Minister of Economy, Environment, and Agriculture Taras Vysotsky, whose words are quoted in the report.
The Ministry of Economy reminded that support is provided in accordance with the procedure for the use of funds allocated in the state budget for the development of livestock farming and agricultural product processing, approved by Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 950 of August 6, 2025. Compensation is provided for completed projects submitted through the State Agrarian Register.
Despite losses in eastern Ukraine, dairy production is not stopping but shifting to central and western regions, said Vitaliy Koval, Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, at the conference “Dairy Industry: Ukraine – EU.”
The minister noted that 125 dairy farms are currently being built or modernized in Ukraine.
He expressed confidence that the stability of the dairy business is an example for the entire economy, and that the effective distribution of margins between producers, processors, and retailers is not only a matter of economics but also of trust.
“Only synergy between all participants can provide the economies of scale that will allow creating added value both in the country and for export. I am grateful for the open and professional dialogue. It was a fruitful conversation, which I am convinced will have practical results for the industry,” Koval emphasized.
At the same time, he noted that pricing is the key to fairness in the chain and called on producers to move from raw materials to finished products.
“A ton of Ukrainian agricultural exports costs an average of EUR 291. For comparison, in the EU it is EUR 1,536. This is the difference between a raw material economy and an added value economy. Our task is to ensure that the share of livestock and processing reaches over 50% in the agricultural sector,” the Minister of Agricultural Policy concluded.
Grano Trade LLC (Kyiv) intends to build a full-cycle pig farm in the village of Zabilivschyna (Chernihiv region), designed for the constant maintenance of 250 sows producing up to 8,600 marketable piglets per year, according to the data of the Unified Register of Environmental Impact Assessment of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine.
According to the published data, the construction of the farm is planned on a plot with a total area of 9.63 hectares, leased by Grano Trade. Previously, no livestock activities were carried out on this territory.
It is clarified that the project includes the construction of a pigsty for 250 animals, a fattening pigsty, a feed room, a sanitary inspection room, a solid fuel boiler house, a loading ramp, a sanitary slaughterhouse, a plant for thermal destruction of animal by-products, closed manure storage facilities, two artesian wells and other auxiliary buildings.
The enterprise under construction provides for a technological process according to Danish technology, based on keeping separate groups of animals in special rooms with their differentiated feeding. The pigs are planned to be kept on slatted floors without bedding with the equipment of the premises with a system of self-removal of animal waste.
The project of the pig complex provides for a full three-phase cycle of breeding marketable piglets, consisting of a 28-day breeding cycle, a 53-day rearing cycle and an 86-day piglet feeding cycle. Thus, the cycle from birth to shipment of marketable animals for slaughter is 167 days, which makes it possible to implement two complete livestock breeding cycles per year (total – 8,600 animals per year).
According to the register, the expansion of the enterprise’s capacity will contribute to an increase in the range of meat products in the region, increase tax revenues to the local budget and create new jobs.
According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs, Lion Konovaliuk is the ultimate beneficiary of Grano Trade LLC.
According to the data on the company’s website, the main activity of Grano Trade is the purchase and trading of basic agricultural crops: wheat, corn, barley, sunflower and rapeseed. Grano Trade cooperates with more than 1,000 agricultural producers with a land bank from 3,000 to 20,000 hectares.
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION, FARM, GRANO TRADE, NATURAL RESOURCES
The founder and majority shareholder of the Ukrainian agricultural holding KSG Agro Serhiy Kasianov plans to build a pig-breeding complex in Kazakhstan for 200,000 heads, investments will amount to $50 million, the press service of the company told Interfax-Ukraine on Thursday.
“Kazakhstan has an advantageous geographical position, a land border with China. There is no African swine fever, which today is the main obstacle for many countries in the world to export pork to the Chinese market. There is a great interest of the government of Kazakhstan in supporting and creating conditions for such a project, but there are no people with experience in creating such enterprises from scratch. KSG Agro has both qualified personnel and experience in raising purebred pigs,” the press service of the company quoted Kasianov as saying.
The press service of the agricultural holding said that the Swiss companies participating in the project will supply technologies and animals of Swiss genetics to Kazakhstan. In particular, one of the investors is KS Genetic (Switzerland), which is chaired by Filippo Lombardi, ex-chairman of the Council of States of Switzerland.
The project of the livestock complex includes two sow farms with 4,000 sows each, which will make it possible to keep 200,000 heads of pigs per year, as well as a feed mill. The annual design production capacity is about 20,000 tonnes of meat.
According to Kasianov, the prospective markets for the products are China, Vietnam and South Korea.
The press service of KSG Agro said that it is not yet planned to attract credit or own funds of the Ukrainian agricultural holding for the implementation of the Kazakh project.
Currently, negotiations are underway with a number of potential investors on financial participation in the Kazakh project. The issue of attracting investors to the charter capital of KSG Agro for the development of the company’s meat processing facilities and its entry into new markets for finished products of the livestock industry is also being discussed.
KMZ Industries (Karlivka Machine Building Plant, Poltava region), a leading supplier of integrated solutions for grain storage and processing in Ukraine, in 2020 will provide Batkivschyna farm LLC (Chernihiv region) with transport equipment (conveyors and elevators) as part of the next expansion of the customer’s elevator capacity.
According to a press release from KMZ Industries, the agricultural enterprise with which the plant has been cooperating for the third year will be supplied with 13 chain conveyors with a total length of 300 meters and five bucket elevators with a capacity of 175 tonnes/hour with a total length of 198 meters.
According to the press service, in October of this year, KMZ Industries installed four grain storage silos for Batkivschyna out of the eight delivered by the plant back in 2017 with a total volume of 136,000 cubic meters of one-time storage (four more were installed at the end of 2019).
“This year Batkivschyna LLC has fixed a new record of wheat yield in our country at 10.1 tonnes/ha. And it will be stored in the silos of our production,” the press service said citing head of the regional office of KMZ Industries Vladyslav Perekhodko.
KMZ Industries manufactures silos on a flat base, with a conical bottom, silos for storing flour, Brice-Baker mine grain dryers (British design) and particle board (Ukrainian design), transport equipment (bucket elevators, chain, belt and screw conveyors), separators for grain cleaning, assembles and automates elevator equipment and technological processes at granaries.
