Ukrainian honey producer BEEHIVE (part of the EFI Group) is considering opening production facilities in Europe due to the European Union’s reinstatement of import duties on honey, which has led to the company losing ground in the European retail market, said BEEHIVE General Manager Semen Gagarin.
“When the 17.3% tariff was reinstated, we didn’t expect it. At one point, our margin dropped by 20% at the base level, and we started getting pushed out of retail chains—we were left with only 10–15% of the list of retailers we had previously. For us, this was a real ‘cold shower,’” he said at the Forbes Ukraina Exporters Summit.
According to Gagarin, entering complex markets, particularly the British Morrisons chain or the German REWE, requires significant preparation. He emphasized that for Ukrainian honey to make it onto the chain’s shelves, the manufacturer had to offer extreme terms. Specifically, in Germany, the company was forced to provide a “55% margin for the chain” to have a chance of gaining entry.
The general manager explained that BEEHIVE used a “top-down” pricing model in the EU, taking into account competitors’ pricing policies. Under this model, if the product’s cost price is EUR1, the shipping price to the EU must be EUR1.5, and the final shelf price for the consumer will reach around EUR2.5.
“We always work based on the shelf price and the competitor’s price: if their price is EUR3, we need to be a little cheaper to give the buyer a reason to vote for us with their money,” he said.
Assessing the competitive environment, Gagarin noted that Ukrainian producers have to compete with European family-owned companies that have a 150-year history. Since honey is largely a commodity, unique taste or a price advantage become key success factors. To ensure stable expansion, he advised his colleagues to first capture the maximum share of the local Ukrainian market in order to have the financial cushion needed for costly investments in marketing and product listings abroad.
Currently, the company sees two paths forward: either wait for Ukraine’s full EU membership, which would eliminate customs barriers, or localize production directly in Europe.
“Exporting is expensive, exporting takes time, and exporting is complicated. But it’s doable if you have a ‘margin buffer,’ are ready to invest in trading houses, and hire ‘native speakers’ who will communicate with clients in their own language,” Gagarin concluded.
EFI Group (Effective Investment Technologies), founded in 2007, implements business projects in Ukraine. Its investment areas include healthcare and medtech, the paper, food, and woodworking industries, and the supply of agricultural products. Most of the group’s assets are export-oriented and hold international FSC, IFS, and BRC certifications.
The company’s businesses include Feednova, a producer of animal fats and feed additives; the “Beehive” honey production plant; the “Medical Star” honey retail chain, the Zhytomyr Cardboard Plant, the cardboard packaging manufacturer “Sem Ecopack,” the timber processor “Forest Technology,” the agricultural products supplier “Efi Agro,” and the online medical hub Doc.ua.
According to The Serbian Economist, Serbia has aligned itself with two European Union resolutions that extend existing restrictive measures related to the war in Ukraine.
The first EU resolution concerns measures against Russia’s actions regarding the occupied regions of Ukraine that are not under Kyiv’s control. Essentially, this is an extension of the special sanctions regime for another year—until February 24, 2027. Serbia supported this extension along with a number of other EU candidate countries and partners.
The second decision concerns sanctions against specific individuals, companies, and organizations in connection with the situation in Ukraine. These are not “general sanctions against Russia as a whole,” but rather an extension of the list of targeted restrictions on specific individuals until March 6, 2027.
The wording stating that Serbia “will ensure the alignment of its national policy” with this decision means the following: Belgrade has declared that it will act in line with EU policy on these two specific issues. The European Union separately noted and welcomed Serbia’s alignment in official statements.
This does not mean that Serbia has fully aligned itself with the entire EU sanctions package against Moscow. It concerns specifically these two separate decisions, not full alignment with Brussels on sanctions.
For Serbia, this is yet another example of partial foreign policy alignment with Brussels on issues related to Ukraine and Russia.
Serbia is a candidate country for EU membership and is regularly under close scrutiny by Brussels regarding the alignment of its foreign and sanctions policies with European decisions. Against this backdrop, such steps by Belgrade are usually seen as a signal of its willingness to maintain working-level coordination with the EU on specific international issues, primarily those related to the Ukrainian agenda.
In January-February of this year, Ukrainian enterprises reduced their consumption of rolled metal products by 11.01% compared to the same period last year, to 495,500 tons.
According to a press release from the Ukrmetallurgprom association on Thursday, 246,900 tons, or 49.83% of the domestic market for rolled metal consumption, were imported during this period.
According to Ukrmetallurgprom, in January-February 2026, metallurgical enterprises produced 796.7 thousand tons of rolled metal (83.2% compared to the same period in 2025), of which, according to the State Customs Service of Ukraine, about 548.1 thousand tons, or 68.8%, were exported. In January-February 2025, the share of exports was 63.5% (607.6 thousand tons with a total production of rolled metal products of 957.0 thousand tons).
The share of semi-finished products in export deliveries in January-February 2026 is 33.90%, which coincides with the indicator for the two months of 2025 (33.21%). The share of flat products in export deliveries in January-February 2026 significantly exceeds the figure for January-February 2025 (58.58% and 47.78%, respectively). The share of long products is significantly lower than in January-February 2025 (7.52% in 2026 versus 19.01% in 2025).
The structure of imports in January-February 2026 is characterized by a noticeable dominance of flat products over long products (53.54% and 30.21%, respectively), However, in January-February 2025, the dominance of flat rolled products over long products was significantly greater (82.55% and 14.42%, respectively).
In January-February 2026, the domestic market capacity was 495.5 thousand tons of rolled metal, of which 246.9 thousand tons, or 49.83%, were imports. In January-February 2025, the domestic market capacity was 556.8 thousand tons, of which 207.4 thousand tons, or 37.25%, were imported. Thus, in January-February 2026, there was an 11.01% decrease in the capacity of the domestic market compared to January 2025, with a simultaneous 12.58% increase in the share of imports,” the press release states.
According to the State Customs Service, the main export markets for Ukrainian rolled metal in January-February 2026 are the countries of the European Union (75.8%), other European countries (12.7%), and the CIS (6.4%).
Among metallurgical importers in January-February 2026, other European countries ranked first (44.9%), followed by Asian countries (24.6%) and the EU-27 countries (17.3%).
As reported, Ukraine’s rolled metal market in 2025 increased by 21.73% compared to the previous year, to 4 million 1.6 thousand tons. During this period, 1 million 603.6 thousand tons were imported, or 40.07% of the domestic rolled metal consumption market.
In 2024, Ukraine’s rolled metal market decreased by 6.26% compared to the previous year, to 3 million 288.4 thousand tons, while in 2023 it increased 2.19 times compared to 2022, to 3 million 505.6 thousand tons.
The mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, has proposed banning citizens of countries outside the European Union from buying second homes in the city, explaining that this is to combat speculative demand amid a protracted housing crisis. This primarily concerns buyers who purchase real estate not for permanent residence but as an investment asset. In February, Collboni himself said that if it were within his power, he would ban British, American, and other non-EU citizens from buying second homes in the Catalan capital.
At the moment, this is only a political initiative and not an adopted norm. At the same time, at the national level, the Spanish government announced in January 2025 its intention to significantly tighten the conditions for purchasing housing for non-residents from countries outside the EU, increasing the tax burden for them to 100% of the property value. This measure also remains a proposal and requires further legislative formalization.
Barcelona’s initiative is part of a broader policy by city authorities to cool the overheated housing market. Earlier, the city had already decided not to renew licenses for short-term tourist rentals, of which there are about 10,101 in Barcelona, after 2028. The authorities explain the tough stance by the fact that over the past ten years, the average rent in the city has increased by 68%, and the cost of purchasing housing by 38%.
According to official data from Idescat, at the beginning of 2025, 1,713,247 people lived in Barcelona, of whom 437,663 were foreigners, or 25.55% of the population. Accordingly, there were about 1.276 million Spanish citizens in the city. At the same time, if we look not at citizenship but at place of birth, according to the city report for 2024, 33.6% of Barcelona’s residents were born outside Spain, and those born directly in Barcelona accounted for only 46.1% of the population.
The largest diasporas in Barcelona by citizenship at the beginning of 2025 were Italian (50,754 people), Colombian (29,574), Pakistani (24,857), Chinese (22,333), Peruvian (22,105), Moroccan (19,300), and French (18,437). The city authorities separately noted that the statistics for Italian citizens also include many people born in Argentina with Italian passports.
The European Union has officially allowed the import of planting material for common cherries (Prunus cerasus), blue cherries (Prunus canescens), and their hybrids from Ukraine, according to the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection (Derzhprodspozhyvsluzhba).
According to the report, the decision was made by the European Commission (EU Executive Regulation 2025/1949) after reviewing the technical dossier prepared by the Ukrainian side. The document allows the import of unvaccinated plants up to two years old in a dormant state (without leaves) into the EU.
“The opening of the EU market for Ukrainian planting material is another step towards deeper integration into the European space and strengthening Ukraine’s reputation as a reliable trading partner,” the agency said.
The State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection emphasized that exporters must ensure unconditional compliance with the phytosanitary requirements of Regulation (EU) 2019/2072. Each shipment must be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate, and non-compliance with the importing country’s standards is grounds for refusal to issue it.
The agency drew attention to the need to recognize the equivalence of Ukraine’s certification system for the full export of material covered by Council Directive 2008/90/EC. In this context, an important step was the Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2026/75 of January 12, 2026, on the equivalence of material for the propagation of fruit plants grown in third countries.
In July 2025-February 2026, Ukraine retained its position as the leading supplier of sunflower oil to the European Union and provided almost 92% of the total imports of this product by the bloc’s countries, according to the specialized publication OFI Magazine, citing data from the European Commission.
According to a report by the German Union for the Promotion of Plants and Proteins (UFOP), in the first seven months of the 2025-2026 marketing year (MY, July-June), the EU-27 countries imported a total of just under 1.04 million tons of sunflower oil. Despite its leadership, the total import figure decreased compared to the same period last year, when it amounted to 1.28 million tons.
According to UFOP estimates, the annual sunflower harvest in Ukraine decreased from 13 million tons in 2024 to 10.5 million tons in 2025, as the decline in harvest led to a reduction in processing volumes and limited sunflower oil exports.
Researchers at Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft also noted significant pressure from Russian attacks on infrastructure and port facilities, which complicated oil logistics.
Market observers, in turn, noted the stabilization of sunflower oil export flows despite security risks.
Moldova (5% of the market) and Serbia (less than 2%) ranked second and third among suppliers. Moldova showed an increase in supplies, while Serbia lagged significantly behind the previous year’s level.
