The Ma’Rizhany Industrial Park (Zhytomyr region) plans to double its industrial hemp processing capacity, according to Dmytro Kysilevsky, deputy head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Economic Development, on Facebook.
He noted that as of early August 2025, the plant will be able to process 10,000 tons of hemp per year. Increasing the area under cultivation to 4,000 hectares will allow the plant to reach a processing capacity of 20,000 tons of raw materials per year. In the 2025 season, there will be more than 1,600 hectares of industrial crops within a 20 km radius of the park.
“The Ma’Rizhany industrial park is actively persuading farmers in the Zhytomyr region to switch from unstable and politicized grain supplies to the European Union to long-term contracts with Ukrainian customers for a new, promising, and traditional crop for Ukraine. Well, the demand for hemp fiber is growing on the world market, which is the best financial guarantee for farms that will become partners of the industrial park,” Kysilevsky said.
The MP expressed confidence that the industrial park has enough free space to accommodate the next stages of deep processing of industrial hemp.
In May 2025, the largest industrial hemp primary processing enterprise in Ukraine began operations in the Ma’Rizhany industrial park. Ma’Rizhany Hemp Company renovated an old flax factory and built a modern production facility with a capacity of 14,000 tons per year of long fiber for the textile industry. It is expected that related processing products, such as short fiber and chaff, will find application in nonwoven materials (heat and sound insulation), paper, building blocks, chipboard, and bioplastics.
As reported, IP “Ma’Ryzhany” occupies about 30 hectares, the territory of a former flax processing plant. It will be the first park in Europe for the primary processing of bast crops. It was entered in the Register of IPs in August 2024. It is planned to create more than 700 jobs.
PJSC “Lviv Regional Production Fish Factory” has opened an innovative fish processing plant in Lviv region, according to the press service of the State Agency for Land Reclamation, Fisheries and Food Programs.
According to the report, the plant’s capacity of 6,800 square meters allows it to process up to 25 tons of raw materials and produce 12.5 tons of finished products daily. Both fish from its own farms and imported raw materials are used for production.
The plant has three levels: two production floors and a technical floor where the engineering systems are located. The space is divided into four main areas: ramps for loading raw materials and shipping finished products, “wet” rooms for processing raw, salted, and smoked fish, “dry” rooms for the production of preserves and semi-finished products, and sanitary and utility rooms for personnel.
The plant has implemented international food quality and safety management systems (ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 22000), which will enable the company to not only supply the domestic market but also export its products.
Once full production capacity is reached, 283 new jobs will be created. The company currently employs 82 people. Last year, it produced 1,382 tons of products and paid UAH 6.4 million in taxes to the budget.
Plans include expanding the export line, introducing biotechnologies for waste disposal, creating a related feed production facility, and entering new international markets.
“We are honored to open the largest fish processing plant in Eastern Europe. This is not just a production facility — it is a strategic step in the development of national aquaculture. We are not only investing in processing, but also changing our approach: from farming to delivering high-quality, safe, and tasty end products to consumers. Thanks to modern technologies, we are improving recipes and striving to change the culture of fish consumption in our country,” said Taras Vysotsky, Deputy Minister of Economy, Environment, and Agriculture.
According to him, the ministry will continue to work on promoting the consumption of domestically produced fish among Ukrainians. In particular, fish continues to be purchased at auctions on the Prozorro.Prozori platform for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, penitentiary institutions, law enforcement agencies, etc.
The processing of alternative oilseeds in the new season may increase in case of signing the bill containing “soybean-rape amendments”, but not significantly, with the processing of rapeseed amounting to 500-550 thsd tonnes, soybeans – 2.7 mln tonnes, sunflower – 13.6-13.8 mln tonnes, APK-Inform news agency reported.
“Indeed, the export duty for soybean and rapeseed may make the domestic prices for oilseeds more attractive for the processing companies, but there are a number of factors that may limit the processing volumes, including the expected lower harvest of alternative oilseeds and higher harvest of sunflower, as well as the existing difficulties with the sale of the processed products,” – the analysts explained.
According to the experts, the potential of rapeseed harvest in Ukraine is decreasing as the harvesting campaign progresses, as it shows much lower yields than expected. Currently, APK-Inform estimates the gross harvest of this crop at about 3 mln tonnes (-18% compared to 2024/25 MY).
At the same time, the competition in this sector between exporters and processors will remain high even with the export duty, as a number of companies already have the obligations under the foreign economic contracts, and the supply of raw materials from farmers remains low, which will support the prices of rapeseed, while the prices of rapeseed oil are still under pressure due to the oil market conditions and the increase of oilseed production in the EU.
“Our estimate of rapeseed processing in Ukraine in 2025/26 season does not exceed 500-550 thsd tonnes (as compared to the previous season). At the same time, if the margin prospects in this sector improve, we may revise the estimate upwards,” the analysts predict.
The prospects of the soybean sector, in their opinion, are also ambiguous.
The area of soybean planting in 2025 turned out to be bigger than forecasted, but according to APK-Inform, the harvest is unlikely to exceed the previous year’s figure and, given the growth of the yield potential, is expected to reach 6.3 mln tonnes (-8%). However, this could be one of the largest figures for the industry, which could have a corresponding impact on prices and keep it attractive for processors.
In the new season, subject to the export duty on soybeans, the processing of soybeans may reach 2.7 mln tonnes (+3%) and become a new record for the industry.
Another important factor will be the amount of sunflower harvested and the margin of its processing.
“It is expected that the production of this oilseed may grow by 8% to about 14 mln tonnes, and the crushing – to 13.6-13.8 mln tonnes, which may slightly reduce the interest of large mills to alternative oilseeds,” APK-Inform summarized.
The Velta Group, which has assets for the extraction of titanium-bearing ores in Novomyrhorod (Kirovohrad region), has received its third patent from the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for its innovative Velta Ti Process technology.
According to a press release on Monday, the new patent confirms the possibility of obtaining high-quality titanium dioxide (TiO₂), a key material for the further production of titanium powder using the Velta Ti Process technology, as well as commercial products based on titanium, iron, calcium, and nitrogen.
It should be noted that Velta Holding US Inc. has obtained three Ukrainian and three US patents since 2020.
Velta Holding US Inc. is a group of companies engaged in the full cycle of titanium production, from the extraction of titanium raw materials through innovation to the manufacture of final metal products.
Velta LLC is a Ukrainian company that is part of the group and is a manufacturer of titanium raw materials and the only private Ukrainian company that has built a titanium mining complex from scratch in the Kirovohrad region. With over 15 years of experience in the mining sector, the company holds 2% of the global titanium market and has partners and customers in Europe and the US.
Velta Holding also includes the Velta RD Titan research and development center and Velta Medical, a manufacturer of custom titanium implants.
Velta Holding LLC is wholly owned by VKF Velta LLC. The ultimate beneficiaries are three individuals: Andriy Brodsky (60%), Vadym Moskalenko (20%), and Vitaliy Malakhov (20%).
PATENT, PROCESSING, TECHNOLOGY, TITANIUM, US, USA, VELTA
In 2025, construction will begin in Serbia on the largest food industry enterprise in decades—a corn starch processing plant. The project is being implemented by Amelo, part of the Moldovan agro-industrial group Trans-Oil.
Location and scope of the project
The plant will be built in the city of Sremska Mitrovica on the site of the former Checherana sugar factory. The total investment will amount to €35 million. The plant will be able to process up to 250,000 tons of corn per year, producing native and modified starch, as well as corn syrup for the food, pharmaceutical, and chemical industries.
Construction will begin in May 2025 and will last 18–20 months. The project partner is the Chinese company Myande Group, which specializes in equipment for starch production.
Once operational, the plant will create around 150 new jobs. Sremska Mitrovica Mayor Branislav Nedimovic noted that this is one of the largest investments in Serbia’s food industry in the last 40–50 years.
The new plant will increase domestic corn processing, reduce raw material exports, and increase the added value of products. This will strengthen Serbia’s position in the European market for starch and related products.
Astarta Agro-Industrial Holding, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, started sugar beet processing at a plant in Vinnytsia region on August 24, with a total of five plants of the agricultural group operating this season, the press service of the agricultural holding reported on its Facebook page.
According to the report, two plants in Poltava region are scheduled to be launched at the end of the week, and two more in September.
“The season has started successfully. The first plant is now online and operating at full capacity. We will soon start shipping the first batches of high-quality sugar to Ukrainian consumers. In general, our investments in the sugar segment were aimed at improving the energy efficiency of the plants. We also focused on improving staff motivation and product quality,” said Igor Rylyk, Director of Agricultural Processing at Astarta.
At the same time, the agricultural enterprises of the agro-industrial holding, which are the main suppliers of raw materials for Astarta’s sugar factories, continue harvesting sugar beet, the total area of which this year is 38 thousand hectares.
Currently, the holding’s plants are working on their own raw materials, and starting from September 1, sugar beet will be supplied for processing by farms with which Astarta cooperates on a regular basis, the agricultural holding said.
In 2023, Astarta Agricultural Holding grew 39 thousand tons of sugar beet, which is 20% more than a year earlier, thanks to a record yield of 58 tons/ha against 56 tons/ha in 2022, the company’s annual report said on Wednesday evening.
According to the agricultural holding, the record high sugar beet harvest extended the processing period until the end of January 2024. In total, the sugar production campaign in 2023 lasted 130 days, compared to 111 days a year earlier.
“In the 2023-2024 marketing year, Astarta increased sugar production by 34% year-on-year to 377 thousand tons. At the same time, the volume of sugar beet processing in 2023 increased by 37% compared to the same period last year and reached 2.7 million tons. The market share remained unchanged at 21% in 2023.
In 2023, Astarta, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, reduced its net profit by 5.0% to EUR 61.9 million, and its EBITDA decreased by 6.1% to EUR 145.77 million, while revenue increased by 21.3% to EUR 618.93 million.
