ORGANIC'23: Top 10 Most Recognizable Organic Brands in Ukraine
Ukraine, endowed with vast agricultural resources ideal for organic farming, has significant potential to become a key player in the global organic products market. The country is already among the top five largest exporters of organic products to the EU and exports its produce to more than 40 countries worldwide. At the same time, it meets the demands of discerning consumers on the domestic market amidst economic instability and war.
For three consecutive years BrandStory in collaboration with the certification body Organic Standard has been conducting and publishing a ranking of the most well-known and recognised organic brands in Ukraine.
We express respect to our courageous producers who supply Ukrainians with products grown and crafted by high standards of organic production. The rating coefficient takes into account sales volumes on Ukraine's domestic market and brand recognition among consumers. This allows us to assert that the included companies are leaders in sales.
TOP-10 Organic Brands in Ukraine - Leaders of the Country:
1st place: Organic Milk
The brand Organic Milk has been successfully operating on the Ukrainian market for 10 years and is one of the leaders in industrial scale organic production. The well-known symbol of the brand, the "circle," which is featured on the product labelling, embodies two aspects: the name Organic Milk and the idea of a closed, continuous production cycle. Large land areas, own farms, the availability of suitable raw materials, and modern technology are just a few components of their successful formula.
Organic Milk is a guarantee of using certified animal feed, free access to pasture areas, and automated, contactless milking and bottling. All production stages are certified as organic and are under the control of Organic Standard, complying with international and Ukrainian organic production standards.
Every day, around 30 tonnes of fresh milk are transformed into a variety of products, including milk, kefir, yoghurt, butter, sour cream, cheeses, and more. In 2022-2023, the producer added several types of kefir, butter, including lactose-free sweet cream butter, and new flavours of organic cheese with nuts, cumin, and more to their product lineup.
According to Olena Stretovych, Director of Organic Milk LLC, the company has faced several challenges due to the wartime situation. These challenges include a reduction in the number of target consumers due to population migration, closure of export markets in the Persian Gulf countries, and increased production costs, making it more challenging to raise prices due to reduced profit margins. However, the company maintains its economic resilience and is expanding its export potential to the EU countries, starting with Poland:
“We are expanding our export markets, particularly in Europe. Currently, we are continuing to establish and seek new connections with partners and distributors. We are in negotiations with potential partners in Italy”, stated Olena Stretovych, Director of Organic Milk LLC .
In Poland, products from the Ukrainian brand Organic Milk can be found in such retail chains as ALDI, Allegro, Auchan, Detal, Hurt, Intermarche, Leclerc, Marko, Snack, and others.
In Ukraine, the brand is available in all specialised organic stores and major national supermarkets, including Goodwine, Winetime, Metro, Silpo, Auchan, Velyka Kyshenya, Fora, and others.
* We would like to remind you that the company held a leading position in the ORGANIC'21 and ORGANIC'22 rankings.
2nd place: Danube Agrarian
The Danube Agrarian farm in Odesa region was established in 2013. Thanks to its commitment to organic quality, this company is a leader in cultivating organic watermelons and melons.
It is one of the largest organic farms in Ukraine, cultivating approximately 2,000 hectares of land. On these fertile lands along the renowned 45th parallel, the farm produces natural vegetables, fruits, grains, root crops such as sweet potatoes, and animal products. This farm is the only one in Ukraine that grows organic peaches and nectarines. Additionally, in 2023 they obtained status as an organic producer of honey.
The Danube Agrarian farm tirelessly develops organic animal husbandry and poultry farming, here they raise sheep, chickens, and ducks. The organic production of the farm is certified by Organic Standard.
This company is one of the few national companies that produce more than 160 types of products. It is one of the companies that, in terms of certification, covers almost all product categories required by organic standards.
Danube Agrarian always introduces interesting new products, such as fruit chips made from watermelons, melons, and plums, as well as jams made from fruits and herbs with unique flavour combinations.
Even the challenging situation in the country has not hindered the company's development. Throughout 2022 and 2023, Danube Agrarian continuously worked on expanding its product range. New products have emerged, such as tomato juice, and new flavours of healthy snacks, including fruits in French chocolate.
Products under the Danube Agrarian brand are widely available in the Ukrainian supermarket chains such as Goodwine, WineTime, Silpo, Novus, Auchan, Velyka Kyshenya, and MegaMarket.
They are also available in the retail stores in the European Union countries: Germany, Romania, and Poland. Additionally, their products are exported to Switzerland (LIDL stores), Canada, and the USA.
*The company has maintainedits second leading position in the ranking for the third consecutive year, as it did in the ORGANIC'21 and ORGANIC'22 rankings.
3rd place: Staryi Porytsk
Established in 2009, the Staryi Porytsk brand has earned a stellar reputation for its long-standing commitment to organic practices. Situated in Volyn region, the farm obtained official certification for compliance with organic standards from Organic Standard in 2012. Since 2014, a substantial portion of their production has undergone additional scrutiny, aligning with the stringent Swiss standards of Bio Suisse.
The activities of the Staryi Porytsk farm span a broad spectrum of sectors, including agriculture, animal husbandry, and processing of dairy products. On this farm you can witness the successful implementation of cutting-edge methods in organic production. Cows are raised in free-range conditions and fed with carefully selected natural feeds grown on the farm.
“The uniqueness of our production lies in the fact that everything is managed within one location! We ensure and control the entire process, following the 'from field to shelf' approach, all with the same team, within the same community”, emphasises Valentyn Obshtyr, the owner of Staryi Porytsk.
The Staryi Porytsk brand produces over 40 different varieties of organic dairy products. This assortment includes various hard and soft kinds of cheese, yoghurts, butter, kefir, buttermilk, sour cream, cottage cheese, and pasteurised milk with varying fat content. Additionally, they have recently introduced organic semi-finished products such as cottage cheese pancakes and cottage cheese dumplings. The company also engages in the production of buckwheat groats and flour from hard wheat varieties, among other products.
Shortly, the farm plans to expand into meat processing. “If everything goes well, we are considering the possibility of constructing a small processing facility, similar to our current one for milk processing”, notes Valentyn.
Their products can be found in many stores, including the Silpo retail chain and other local outlets. Furthermore, their products are available for order through online stores specialising in healthy food.
The company has moved up one position compared to the previous ORGANIC'22 ranking, where it held the 4th position, and two position higher than in the ORGANIC'21 ranking, where it was in 5th place.
4th place: ECOROD
The company Organic Original, which produces products under the ECOROD brand, entered the market for the first time in 2011 and quickly established itself as a leader among pioneers on the Ukrainian organic market. The company specialises in the production of flour, cereals, legumes, sunflower oil, as well as organic corn sticks. It's worth noting that they offer the largest assortment of organic cereals and flour in Ukraine.
The company holds a European organic certificate and uses the EU Euroleaf logo. Additionally, they are certified by Organic Standard in accordance with the Ukrainian organic legislation, confirming their compliance with these requirements. The company also possesses an ISO 22000 certificate, ensuring food safety.
From its early years, the ECOROD brand gained popularity among consumers due to its extensive range of healthy snacks. Since 2019, their product line has included corn sticks made using freeze-dried berries (strawberry, blueberry, raspberry), coconut, sunflower, and olive oil.
The main production facilities are located in Kyiv region, an area that experienced prolonged hostilities. Therefore, the company had to temporarily suspend production for 40 days, but they resumed operations in April 2022.
“We have faced challenges in fully restoring our production processes and supply chains, along with the issues related to electricity shortage that has impacted our manufacturing. To adapt to the current circumstances, we are actively working on optimising our internal processes”, explains Andriy Olefirenko, Director of Organic Original LLC.
Before the outbreak of full-scale war, the company exported to Vietnam, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. Currently, the company is primarily focused on the domestic market.
Products under the ECOROD brand are widely available in all major national retail chains such as Silpo, MegaMarket, Good Wine, Auchan, Novus, and others.
* The company has moved up two positions compared to the previous ORGANIC'22 ranking, where it held the 6th place, and five steps higher than in the ORGANIC'21 ranking, where it was in the 9th position.
5th place: Organic Chicken
The Organic Chicken brand is owned by the Home Chicken farm, which has been successfully operating for nearly 4 years.
It is undoubtedly the largest producer of organic eggs in Ukraine. The farm is home to 24,000 laying hens and 20,000 chicks for further cultivation. The company uses its fields for free-range chicken roaming. To achieve the highest product quality, specially selected chick breeds from the Czech Republic, which perfectly meet the requirements of organic conditions, are imported.
The products are certified by Organic Standard. Certification body control ensures compliance with international standards, specifically that chickens can freely move in an open area covered with grass, where one chicken has 4 square metres, and are fed exclusively with organic feed.
Reduction in the number of customers and limited profit margins have become the key challenges during the full-scale war.
“The production costs are rising, but we cannot significantly raise prices due to the limited profit potential. There are also issues with retaining staff due to military deployments and mobilisation”, noted Olena Stretovych, Head of the Home Chicken farm enterprise.
Organic products under the Organic Chicken brand are available in the national retail chains and specialised stores in Ukraine (Winetime, Goodwine, Metro, Silpo, Auchan, Velyka Kyshenya, Fora, MegaMarket), as well as online stores (Rozetka and others).
Currently, the farm is focused on domestic customers and does not export.
*The company has significantly improved its position compared to the ORGANIC'21 ranking, where it was ranked 12th.
6th place: Skvira Organic
The brand belongs to Skvyrskyi Grain Processing Factory, founded in 1931. That year marked the beginning of the Skvira Organic brand's history.
Since 2014 the company has been producing certified organic products. They hold certification under the EU organic standards from Organic Standard and also BIO SUISSE standard, Switzerland. In addition, they have obtained HALAL and Kashrut certificates, confirming products compliance with specific dietary requirements.
Their range of organic products includes 59 items, encompassing various groats, flour, and cereals, including flour used for baby food products. The company also manufactures products for baby nutrition.
An important aspect of their business is their fruitful cooperation with global baby food brands such as Nestle, Cerealto, and Danone. Approximately 40% of their total production volume is exported abroad.
According to Yevhen Motsnyi, Commercial Director of Skvyrskyi Grain Processing Factory, the main challenges the manufacturer has faced during the war are related to logistical problems, trust from counterparties, specifically ensuring that the products would be made and delivered, as well as retaining their team:
“We became more interested in European networks, significantly lowering the threshold for entry on the shelf under our brand”, adds Yevhen.
You can find products under their brand in almost every EU country, in the retail chains such as Carrefour, Eurospar, Auchan (Poland), MixMarkt, and other local shops.
In Ukraine, their products are available in all the leading national supermarkets such as Silpo, MegaMarket, METRO, Auchan, Fozzy, Novus, and others, as well as in health food stores and organic shops.
*The company's position has improved by one compared to the previous year's ranking, ORGANIC'22, where the brand held the seventh position. According to the results of the ORGANIC'21 ranking, the company occupied the third position.
7th place: Agro Starytsya
The Agro Starytsya brand represents the products of an organic farm located in Kyiv region of Ukraine. This farm was one of the first to start cultivating organic berries in Ukraine, and since 2012, the brand has become an important participant on the Ukrainian organic market. The confirmation of its high quality products comes from the certificates issued by Organic Standard, which verifies the compliance of their production with organic standards.
The diverse range of products offered by this producer includes fresh and frozen vegetables, greens, and fruits such as raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, currants (black and red), apples, cherries, plums, sea buckthorn, aronia, asparagus, onions, leek, eggplants, zucchinis, pumpkins, radishes, tomatoes, fennel, cauliflower, and kohlrabi.
One of the main customers for the organic products of the Agro Starytsya farm is the Good Wine retail chain, which reflects the recognition of the quality and popularity of these organic products. The wide variety, naturalness, and compliance with high production standards make Agro Starytsya a true leader on the Ukrainian organic market, where quality always comes first.
*The company has risen in comparison to the previous ORGANIC'22 ranking, where it held the 14th position.
8th place: Organic Meat
The Organic Meat brand entered the market in 2017 and is a part of the Organic Meat Products company, which has production facilities in Zhytomyr region.
The company specialises in meat production exclusively from own raw materials and using original recipes. The main feature of their products is the combination of organic livestock raw materials and cutting-edge processing techniques.
Every stage of production and the products themselves undergo rigorous scrutiny by the certification body Organic Standard, ensuring the organic quality of the final products. The farm complies with both international and national requirements for organic production.
The product lineup under the Organic Meat brand encompasses approximately 30 types of items, including products from pork and beef, as well as varieties of lard and sausages: boiled, boiled-smoked, semi-smoked, and strong-smoked sausages, salami, pate sausages, meat pate, etc.
Before the full-scale war, the plant processed 3 tonnes of raw materials daily, though these volumes have marginally decreased now.
”The volumes have contracted due to lower demand, partly attributable to population migration. Nonetheless, our domestic consumer base has remained unaltered”, remarks Olena Stretovych, Director of Organic Meat Products LLC.
Products carrying the Organic Meat brand can be found in specialised retail chains within Ukraine, as well as virtually in all the national retail chains (Goodwine, Metro, Silpo, Auchan, Velyka Kyshenya), and online stores.
* The company has kept its position compared to the previous year, ORGANIC'22, where it also ranked eighth. In the ORGANIC'21 ranking, the company held sixth place.
9th place: Organic Terra
The Organic Terra brand belongs to Organic Greenhouse PE.
The company specialises in cultivating organic greenhouse vegetables, including cucumbers, cocktail tomatoes, and cherry tomatoes. They were, in fact, among the first in the organic sector to establish stable supplies of fresh vegetables to supermarket chains for almost the entire year. The organic greenhouse cucumber season begins in February, while cherry tomatoes become available at the end of March. Thorough care and modern technologies enable the production of vegetables suitable even for children as young as 9 months old. Rainwater and melted snow are used for plant irrigation in the greenhouses. All aspects of production are subject to control and certification by Organic Standard under the international organic standards.
The full-scale war has significantly impacted the company's operations since the farm is located in Kharkiv region, just 30 km from the active combat zone. For a certain period the farm lost the markets of Kharkiv and Kyiv, including elite restaurants, food establishments, and store chains, due to fuel shortages and curfew restrictions, which hindered the uninterrupted delivery of products.
”We started selling our produce to local entrepreneurs while slightly reducing the price because, in this case, there were no logistics costs associated with delivery to Kyiv, for example. That's how we reconfigured our sales market towards local consumers”, notes Oleksandr Yasynskyi, Co-owner of Organic Greenhouse PE.
Over time the company has successfully streamlined its workforce, production, and logistics processes. The company operates its refrigerated truck, which consistently delivers products to distribution centres in Kyiv and Kharkiv twice a week. It also ensures additional deliveries to local stores twice a week.
Furthermore, the company faced the challenges of stable power supply and the necessity of blackout. This situation posed a threat to the continuity of the production process, as the greenhouses required constant lighting. To address this the company has large backup generators at its disposal, purchased as far back as 2014, and operates its own boiler house for heating the main premises and greenhouses, utilising waste from grain processing.
”We need to provide nighttime and evening lighting for the greenhouses, and being located 30 km away from the conflict zone, not adhering to the blackout requirement was simply not an option. Thanks to our Armed Forces, we were able to stick to our planting schedule. By the end of November, we had already sown all the seeds, and by the end of December we had transplanted everything to the final area and adjusted planting density”, notes Oleksandr Yasynskyi.
This year Organic Greenhouse PE plans to expand its area by an additional 0.5 hectares for greenhouses. This project had been planned long before the full-scale war began but had to be put on hold for a year.
The company's products are available in the organic stores and major Ukrainian retail chains such as Auchan, Silpo, and Novus, as well as local Kharkiv stores like Kharkiv, CLASS, Spar, Wintertime, and Good Wine. Additionally, you can order vegetables online with delivery available throughout Ukraine.
* In comparison to the previous year when it held the 12th position in the ORGANIC'22 ranking, the company has climbed three positionsto its current 9th place.
10th place: BigBlue
The BigBlue brand is owned by the agricultural production cooperative Yahidky, located in Kyiv region. The enterprise, focused on the cultivation of organic blueberries, was established in 2016, and the sale of this berry commenced in 2019.
This organic farm, spanning an area of 60 hectares, ranks among the world's largest farms focused exclusively on organic blueberry cultivation. The production complies with all organic farming standards and has been certified by Organic Standard since 2016.
The farm offers five varieties of blueberries. Harvesting takes place from late June to mid-September.
In 2021, the farm set the agricultural record, having grown the largest organic blueberry, which is included in the National Records Register (Chandler variety, weighing 9 g with 3.05 cm in diameter).
With the onset of the war, from February to April 2022, the enterprise was occupied which resulted in poor harvest that year. However, in 2023 the team accomplished an incredible feat by harvesting a record yield.
The company focuses both on the domestic market and exports. Before the war its products were exported to Poland and Italy.
“After Poland had imposed an embargo on the import of agricultural products, including fresh blueberries, to the EU via the Polish border, our cooperative shifted its focus to domestic customers this year”, emphasises Oleksii Prokopchyk, Sales Manager of the Yahidky Agricultural Production Cooperative.
Although the Ukrainians do not often consume blueberries so far, there is rapidly growing demand for this product. Currently, the cooperative is actively engaged in processing this delectable berry. Thus, shortly, BigBlue has the opportunity to expand its product range of organic blueberries.
The BigBlue brand is available in the national retail chains such as Silpo, METRO, MegaMarket, WineTime, and Fora.
*The company's position remained unchanged compared to the ORGANIC'22 ranking when it also held the 10th position. However, it has climbed three positions compared to ORGANIC'21 when the company occupied the 13th position.
Methodology for Ranking
The ranking of the most recognized organic brands was developed in several stages, and companies were evaluated based on the following criteria:
Production and Sales Volumes on the Domestic Market:
The primary source of information was a study of the domestic organic market within the Ukrainian food sector in 2022. The organic operators’ sales volumes were assessed. These were primarily the organic operators certified by Organic Standard (considering that over 95% of organic operators that produce and distribute organic products in Ukraine are certified by Organic Standard, these data are considered to be representative.)
Results from 2023 were also taken into account, evaluating how companies performed this year. Due to the difficulties associated with the full-scale war, some operators were occupied, while others faced disruptions in production processes and supply chains. However, many companies were able to adapt quickly, change their marketing policies, and expand their product ranges.
Presence of Brands in Retail Chains:
Firstly, the presence and availability of products in the stores were considered. Marketing experts analysed how many and what retail stores have got products of organic brands. The broader the geographical coverage of stores and chains, the higher the brand's rating.
Secondly, the brand's popularity in the stores was taken into account. The popularity and demand for the brand's products among customers in the stores were assessed. This included sales levels, customer feedback, and other factors indicating the brand's distinctiveness from competitors.
Marketing experts evaluated this aspect based on the information provided by organic and farmer product stores, as well as producers.
The Activity of Brands in Media and Social Media:
The evaluation was conducted based on the results of online monitoring. The quantity and quality of brand mentions in media and social media, overall activity, communication, as well as how well they informed consumers about current events and other details were taken into account. The activity of company pages in social media was also analysed, including the quality of content and interaction with the audience.
Transparency of companies and willingness to communicate were also considered in the evaluation of companies.
*This publication has been produced with the support of Switzerland within the Swiss-Ukrainian program "Higher Value Added Trade from the Organic and Dairy Sector in Ukraine" (QFTP), implemented by the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL, Switzerland) in partnership with SAFOSO AG (Switzerland).
The responsibility for the content of this publication lies solely with the author(s). The point of view of the author(s) does not necessarily reflect the views of SECO, FiBL, SAFOSO AG.
Read also:
BrandStory
Nov 29, 2023
10908
115
Irina Nakonechnaya
Sep 22, 2023
4919
122
Irina Nakonechnaya
Sep 21, 2023
8601
122
Irina Nakonechnaya
Sep 19, 2023
15236
124