Domestic pasta producers in 2025 will, for the first time in the entire history of Ukraine’s independence, make 50% of their products from durum wheat grown by Ukrainian farmers, said Rodion Rybchynskyi, director of the Millers of Ukraine association.
“This year, for the first time, around 50% of the durum wheat that was previously imported will be replaced with domestic wheat. If this trend continues, I believe that within the next two years Ukraine will stop importing durum wheat,” he said at the Agro2Food Profit forum in Kyiv on Wednesday reports Interfax.
The expert attributed this import substitution to climate changes in the country. Currently, the Mykolaiv, Odesa, Khmelnytskyi, and partially Vinnytsia regions are suitable for durum wheat production due to global warming, Rybchynskyi said.
The head of the industry association suggested that it is quite possible that domestic processing companies may soon struggle to handle the volume of durum wheat grown by Ukrainian farmers.
Rybchynskyi noted that a mill is currently under construction in the Lviv region, which will process durum wheat into pasta. However, he added that over time, its capacity may not be sufficient to process all the durum wheat produced by farmers.
The head of the Millers of Ukraine association also mentioned that Ukrainian producers will certainly export such products, though the export volumes will likely not match Italian levels.
As previously reported, the private company Zakhidnyi Buh is building Ukraine’s first mill to process durum wheat, along with a pasta factory. The mill is scheduled to start operations in October 2025, and the factory in September. The first phase of the mill will have a capacity of 80 tons per day for durum wheat and 150 tons per day for soft wheat. The second phase will increase capacity by 200 tons for durum and 300 tons for soft wheat. Total investments in the project will amount to 1 billion UAH.
Durum (Triticum durum) is a hard wheat with high protein and gluten content, making it an ideal ingredient for pasta, bread, and other baked goods.
