In 2025, two grain processing plants will be built in Ukraine — one in western Ukraine to produce flour, and another in Poltava region to produce groats, Rodion Rybchynskyi, director of the “Flour Millers of Ukraine” association, said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
"At the moment, a plant is being built in western Ukraine to produce flour from durum wheat with a capacity of up to 150 tons per day, with further processing into pasta. In the Poltava region, a groat-processing plant with a combined capacity of up to 100 tons per day is expected to be launched," he said.
According to the head of the industry association, there are market niches in the flour milling business that deserve attention.
"When we talk about grain processing, we should remember it’s not only flour and groats. There are also composite products: breakfast cereals, energy bars, starch, dry gluten, enzyme preparations based on grain processing — it’s a very broad range of processed products," Rybchynskyi emphasized, adding that the key priority in building such facilities is having a buyer.
According to him, the cost of building a mill or groat-processing plant in Ukraine starts at $3 million, but there are cases where the investment reaches up to $15 million. This figure includes equipment and building costs — fixed assets — but does not account for working capital, which can amount to 50% of the project’s value. To launch a plant, one must purchase raw materials, actively enter the market, plan for marketing expenses, and more.
Rybchynskyi also sees potential for building flour mills along the Black Sea coast, following the example of Turkey.
"Uzbekistan and Egypt have followed the same path as Turkey. The Uzbeks buy Kazakh grain, mill it, and have become the main exporter of flour to Afghanistan, displacing Kazakhstan. Egypt buys Ukrainian and Russian grain and has become a leading flour supplier to the African market, pushing out both the Turks and the French to some extent. All this points to the presence of state policy," he stressed, adding that the key step toward this model of development in Ukraine must be genuine government interest.
