UTK ChemAlliance is a Ukrainian company that has twice lost assets due to the occupation but regained the strength and reserves to carry on. In 2010, Vitaliy Popov founded a fertilizer trading company in eastern Ukraine.
Even then, he felt that climate change was coming, and that there would be less moisture, and he focused on liquid fertilizers, primarily urea ammonium nitrate (UAN).
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“We bought self-propelled sprayers, built a storage facility for UAN in Donetsk Oblast, purchased trucks, made ourselves independent of many other suppliers, and at the same time managed to provide farmers with fertilizers on time.”
4 years later, in 2014, the company lost its office and fertilizer storage facilities in Horlivka following the seizure of the city by pro-Russian separatists.
Vitaliy eventually launched two more plants in the center and south of Ukraine. Later, the company’s portfolio was expanded to include liquid complex fertilizers.
“In 2019, in another city of Donetsk Oblast, Berdiansk, we launched the production of liquid complex fertilizers. At that time, it was the only plant in Ukraine using chemical synthesis technology based on orthophosphoric acid and ammonia. The storage capacity was up to 20 thousand tonnes. 3 years later, the town and company assets were under occupation.”
Again, the company was forced to relocate its assets to other regions. Vitaliy Popov focuses on complex fertilizers as he sees them as the future.
And in 2024, he proved right when Ukraine experienced an abnormal drought. There was no rainfall for 3-4 months in the central and southern regions.
“We see already that granulated fertilizers are being replaced by liquid products. Farmers are rebuilding their technology to apply liquid fertilizers. There is a long way to go because re-equipping is a sizeable investment, but I am convinced that farmers will eventually come to this. And we are consulting them on these issues.”
In 2010, plants in Ukraine produced 600 tonnes of UAN, and in 2024 the production reached about 1 million tonnes.
Since the start of the full-scale war, consumption of all fertilizers has fallen dramatically, and it is remarkable that the liquid fertilizer market is recovering the fastest.
That report was powered by Latifundist Media, with USAID support provided through Agriculture Growing Rural Opportunities (AGRO) Activity implemented in Ukraine by Chemonics International. For more information, visit their website or follow them on social media.
