Industry news

Over the past two months, three major Ukrainian flour mills have come under Russian attack, cargo throughput at the Greater Odesa ports has fallen more than fifteenfold, and shipping in the Black Sea has virtually ground to a halt. Despite the destruction of production facilities and export infrastructure, Ukraine’s flour milling industry continues to meet the country’s food needs, invest in production, and compete for international markets. Rodion Rybchynskyi, Director of The Union Millers of Ukraine, addressed the scale of the losses, the industry’s adaptation to wartime conditions, and the global consequences of Russian aggression during his presentation at IAOM Eurasia Conference & Expo 2026 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, on September 29.

The unique bilingual publication Bread. Ukraine. Almanac, which made its debut in early September, has been presented internationally for the first time. During IAOM Eurasia Conference & Expo 2026 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Rodion Rybchynskyi, Director of The Union Millers of Ukraine and one of the publication’s contributors, introduced the almanac to the leadership of the International Association of Operative Millers (IAOM) and its regional branch, IAOM Eurasia, as well as representatives of milling associations from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. He presented copies of the publication to his international colleagues as gifts.

The 5th Annual IAOM Eurasia Conference & Expo 2026 is taking place in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, on September 28–29, bringing together professionals from the grain, flour milling, and related industries across the Eurasian region. Ukraine’s grain processing industry is represented at the event by Rodion Rybchynskyi, Director of The Union Millers of Ukraine, and Volodymyr Lenets, Director of DykankaMlyn LLC.

The Union Millers of Ukraine has made publicly available the detailed findings of a comprehensive research on the quality and safety of Ukrainian wheat grain and wheat flour. Conducted over several years, the study confirmed consistently high quality parameters for Ukrainian wheat and flour, while laboratory testing demonstrated a high level of product safety.

On 16 July, a delegation from the Union Millers of Ukrain” took part in an international seminar dedicated to the development and modernisation of the flour milling and baking industries. The event was held in Peresecina, Republic of Moldova. Ukrainian specialists joined the seminar at the invitation of the National Association of the Milling and Baking Industry of the Republic of Moldova, headed by Veaceslav Guțuleac. For many years, he has represented the interests of industry enterprises and has played an active role in professional discussions on the development of Moldova’s flour milling and baking sectors.

In the 2025/26 marketing year, Ukraine exported 543.4 thousand tonnes of grain processing products, up 1.2% from the previous season.

Rodion Rybchynskyi, Director of the Union Millers of Ukraine, and Kostiantyn Ihnatenko, CEO of Kyiv Mill, participated in the European Flour Millers' Congress, held on 4–6 June 2026 in Marseille, France. The event was organized by the European Flour Millers association, of which the Union Millers of Ukraine has been an associate member since 2023.

Rodion Rybchynskyi, Director of The Union Millers of Ukraine, and Kostiantyn Ihnatenko, CEO of Kyiv Mill, represented the organization at the SIPPO Import Forum — a prominent international event dedicated to strengthening export promotion ecosystems and advancing global trade.

During July–April of the 2025/26 marketing year (MY), Ukraine exported 52.6 thousand tonnes of wheat flour, which is 3.5% lower than in the same period of the previous season, when exports totaled 54.7 thousand tonnes. The TOP-5 importers of Ukrainian flour over the 10 months of the 2025/26 MY were Moldova (16.8 thousand tonnes), Palestine (9.2 thousand tonnes), the Czech Republic (8.0 thousand tonnes), Spain (4.9 thousand tonnes), and Israel (4.5 thousand tonnes).

The Union Millers of Ukraine has been joined by SE "KRUPOZAVOD OZERYANKA" LLC "IPS"  — a major groats producer that has been operating in the market for over 20 years.

The shortage of qualified personnel in Ukraine affects not only agricultural production itself, but the entire agri-food sector, including processing and food manufacturing, where many processes still cannot be fully replaced by automation. This view was expressed by Rodion Rybchynskyi, Director of the Union Millers of Ukraine, during the press conference “International Partnership for the Development of Training in Ukraine’s Agricultural Sector”, held on March 31 at Interfax-Ukraine.

The Union Millers of Ukraine is pleased to welcome its newest member, ZAKHIDNYI BUH — a leading representative of the national agricultural sector, which has been consistently developing its crop production and deep processing divisions since 2003.

Stolychnyi Mlyn LLC, a long-standing member of the Union Millers of Ukraine, has shipped 504 tonnes of wheat flour to Syria under the humanitarian initiative Grain from Ukraine. The programme was launched in 2022 by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyyto strengthen Ukraine’s role in addressing the global food crisis. The programme is implemented by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).

The Director of the Union of Flour Millers of Ukraine, Rodion Rybchynskyi, explained to Telegraf the mechanisms behind buckwheat price formation, the logic of farmers’ decisions, and the dangers of artificial market hype, which could hit consumers’ wallets harder than a poor harvest.

During July–February of the 2025/26 marketing year (MY), Ukraine exported 41.7 thousand tonnes of wheat flour, which is almost 7% lower than during the same period of the previous season, when 45.0 thousand tonnes were shipped to foreign markets. The top five importers of Ukrainian flour during the first eight months of the 2025/26 season were Moldova (12.9 thousand tonnes), Palestine (7.7 thousand tonnes), Israel (3.8 thousand tonnes), and Spain (3.4 thousand tonnes).