Ukrainians run the risk of staying without a traditional edge to borscht: rye bread is more expensive, and there is almost no domestic rye in the market. Despite the fact that Ukraine has always been considered a "grain of Europe", we are now forced to import rye from Poland, where it is more expensive, and our farmers are sowing less and less every year.
Over the past year, the price of rye in Ukraine has increased more than twice - from UAH 6.5 to 14-16 thousand per tonne. Rye flour jumped to 17-20 thousand UAH/t, and the cost of rye bread has already increased by 5-10%, and this is not a limit. Trade networks warn that by the end of the year prices can increase by another 15-20%.
The reason is simple - a deficit. Since October 2023, rye grain from Ukrainian elevators has been exported massively. In the first half of the season, more than 10 thousand tons were exported, while production decreased more than twice compared to pre -war indicators. If in 2021 there were more than half a million tons of rye in Ukraine, then last year - only 218 thousand tons.
The market has decreased because consumption has fallen. As a result of the war, the departure of the population, the reduction of domestic demand, the production of bread as a whole. But even with this, the internal deficit, according to experts, is more than 50 thousand tons.
Against this background, large bakeries work on imported flour - especially from Poland. At the same time it is more expensive than the Ukrainian, and the quality and variety - others. This means that in the near future Ukrainian black bread can change both in taste and price.
The situation is worsened by the fact that rye as a culture has almost lost its attractiveness to Ukrainian farmers. Its yield is twice as lower than in wheat, and demand is limited - 90% goes to flour, the rest - feed and alcohol. There is no export as such, state support - too.
The largest areas are now concentrated in the Rivne and Volyn, while traditional for rye Zhytomyr, Chernihiv and Kyiv region have sharply lost their positions. The reasons are both economic and security.
Agrarians and experts agree in one thing: this year's rye harvest will also be scanty. Production does not increase, imports are more expensive, and the prices in stores are crawling up.
The power on the ground is limited to information campaigns about the importance of rye to national traditions. However, without economic support for farmers and government programs, the situation is unlikely to change.
In the meantime, Ukrainians are forced to buy more expensive rye bread from foreign grain or gradually abandon it. The times when black bread was everyday and accessible - it looks like in the past. Although the world is in the world of rye Renaissance, Ukraine risks losing another part of its food identity.
