The agro-industrial holding “Astarta” has modernized one of the largest livestock complexes in the Khmelnytskyi region by installing a state-of-the-art 40-head milking carousel, the company’s press service reported on Facebook.
“Dairy farming remains one of Astarta’s strategic areas of development… In the last 2.5 years alone, investments in the dairy segment have exceeded 1 billion hryvnia,” the press service quoted Viktor Ivanchik, CEO of the agribusiness holding, as saying.
According to the press service, investments are being made in farm modernization, technology, and production quality, resulting in market leadership in industrial milk production and 99% of milk being of extra-class quality.
According to the company, the complex is designed to house 2,000 head of cattle.
The modernization project involved upgrading production facilities with a focus on improving animal welfare, production efficiency, and the potential for further expansion.
The company noted that the modernization is part of the holding’s infrastructure program, which also includes the implementation of digital technologies in livestock farming, improving the energy efficiency of farms, and enhancing the genetics of the herd.
“Astarta” is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding operating in seven regions of Ukraine and is the country’s largest sugar producer. The company’s portfolio includes five sugar refineries, agricultural enterprises with a land bank of 214,000 hectares (including 129,000 hectares in Poltava Oblast, 42,000 hectares in Khmelnytskyi Oblast, and 16,000 hectares in Vinnytsia Oblast), and 26 dairy farms with 29,000 head of cattle across three regions. The holding company also operates a soybean processing plant and a bioenergy complex in Poltava Oblast, as well as a network of six grain elevators.
Astarta’s net profit for 2025 fell 4.2-fold to $19.94 million, while consolidated revenue decreased by 23% to $472 million.
Revenue from the livestock segment last year amounted to EUR56 million, and the average annual livestock headcount increased by 5% to 29,000.
Milk sales volumes rose by 6% year-over-year to 122,000 metric tons. At the same time, 99% of the raw milk was classified as extra-quality milk, compared to 97% in 2024.
The agricultural holding “TAS Agro” plans to invest approximately $15 million over the next three years in modernizing dairy farms to bring them into compliance with EU standards, the company’s CEO Oleg Zapletnyuk said in an interview with Delo.ua.
The CEO of the agricultural holding clarified that TAS Agro is concentrating its livestock operations in the Vinnytsia region, where it is completely rebuilding a farm, increasing the number of stalls, and implementing loose housing for livestock.
“The total investment amount is approximately $15 million over the next three years. We are investing in this step by step. This primarily concerns cows. Our goal is to transform outdated livestock farming into a highly productive sector, increase its efficiency, improve livestock housing conditions, and enhance the quality of meat and dairy products,” Zapletnyuk said.
The company’s CEO noted that the strategic plan calls for expanding the land bank from the current 80,000 hectares to 100,000 hectares by the end of 2026.
“Strategically, we plan to increase our land bank to 100,000 hectares. We are currently considering certain assets; if we manage to finalize the purchase by the end of the year, that will bring us to about 100,000 hectares. The next step is to increase it to 120,000 hectares, but that is by 2028,” he said.
Assessing the financial results, the company’s CEO noted that TAS Agro’s net profit for 2025 is expected to be in the range of $20–22 million.
“In 2025, the company’s net profit was in the range of $20–22 million, but we have not yet sold part of our production. As of today, we have effectively sold the wheat, but we have not yet updated the key financial indicators. Estimated at $20–22 million, this is actually 10% more than we had budgeted,” he emphasized.
Zapletnyuk attributed the decline in profitability compared to 2024 (over $25 million) to drought in some of the regions where the company operates and the drop in global prices for agricultural products.
Last year, the holding exported approximately 270,000 tons of agricultural products, with exports accounting for about 60% of total production. The primary destination was the EU, which received 49% of all shipments. Additionally, 25% of exports went to North African countries, 19% to Asia, and 4% of the products were sold in Middle Eastern markets. At the same time, sunflower seeds, as well as a significant portion of soybeans and rapeseed, are processed domestically at partner plants for the subsequent sale of finished products.
The TAS Agro agricultural holding was established in 2014. It cultivates approximately 80,000 hectares across six regions of Ukraine. Its specialization is crop production and dairy farming (cattle herd—5,500 head). Its grain storage capacity is 250,000 tons. Serhiy Tihipko is the founder of the “TAS” group and the beneficiary of the agricultural holding.
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
