“The people of Mykolaiv moved to the Lviv region and created a production of products from local walnuts. What grant programs helped them develop their business?”, — write: epravda.com.ua
The Great War forced Ines and Taras Petukhov to leave their native Mykolaiv and seek safety in the west of Ukraine. While the family was adapting to the new conditions, the husband looked for himself in various jobs in order to provide for the family with three children. In his spare time, the man prepared various goodies from walnuts. After participating in one of the trainings, Petukhova came home with the idea of turning her husband’s hobby into a business. Now the family makes pastas, sauces, snacks and seasonings from walnut under its own brand and processes up to one hundred kilograms of nuts per month. From the editor. Small and medium-sized businesses make up more than half of Ukraine’s economy. Its representatives cannot lobby for their interests like big business, but they always adapt to conditions and find new ways for development. EP shares the principles that guide entrepreneurs in their constant pursuit of growth, so the editors will share interesting stories about them. These stories are not about stunning success and great fortune. These stories are about how Ukrainians who are in love with their work work, give work to others and share their experience. Business idea in ten days Petukhov became interested in nuts in 2019 after a seminar on healthy eating. From time to time he experimented with recipes by adding walnuts. In the port city of Mykolaiv, he often saw how large batches of domestic nuts were sent for export, but in the domestic market mainly imported peanuts and hazelnuts were used for the production of value-added products. After the start of the Great War, Taras put his family on one of the evacuation trains, which, as it turned out later, was headed for Lviv. Later, he also went on the road. In the end, the whole family ended up in the village of Chishki in the Lviv region, where they rented a house.Advertisement: In the new place, everything had to be started from scratch. In Mykolaiv, the man was engaged in the transportation of grain. There was no similar job in the Lviv region, so I had to look for different ways of income: I worked as a taxi driver, a porter, at furniture and sewing factories. However, all this did not satisfy the needs of a family with three children. His wife was also looking for opportunities, so she took part in the five-day training of the Lviv NGO “Women’s Perspectives” “I can!”. Inspired by the success stories of the participants, she came home with the idea of turning her husband’s hobby into a business. Advertisement: Ten days after the training, the Local Farmer Fest, a craft fair of local producers, started in Lviv region. The family decided to join in and made a batch of walnut sauces and snacks. She was the only one with such goods at the fair, so she sold almost all of them in two days. Read also: Business on nuts. As an entrepreneur from Odesa grows hazelnuts and makes tons of sweets, the successful fair gave entrepreneurs confidence. They were also inspired by a meeting with chef Yevhen Klopotenko, who gave the family professional advice. When the family began to study the market, it turned out that the niche of ready-made walnut products was almost empty. There are few products with the addition of walnuts on store shelves, and there are almost no ready-made pastes. Walnut is the basis of everything A small production is located in Chishky. The family registered a FOP and set aside two rooms in a rented house for production. Part of the equipment was purchased in Mykolaiv, and its list was expanded thanks to a grant from the “Caritas” fund. According to its conditions, it was possible to receive up to 187,000 UAH The couple divided responsibilities as follows: the husband manufactures products and creates recipes, the wife is responsible for marketing, attracting investments and development. The family produces about 20 types of walnut products under the ITARA brand: pastes, sauces, desserts, seasonings based on nuts and cheese. They also make candied snacks of their own production (from apples, pumpkins, plums, pears, which are bought from the local population). They recently started producing oil. “We hire up to four workers as needed, one might say, outsourced. People help with the initial processing and cleaning of nuts. This is still unofficial and episodic, but by 2025 we plan to hire two people on a permanent basis so that production is stable,” says Petuhova . The shell is cleaned by hand, the peeled nuts are dried in an infrared dryer. A colloid grinder is used to make pastes. The factory has a dispenser for filling glass jars, a cutter for grinding nuts. One of the features of the products is that during production, the kernels of the nuts are cleaned from the skin in a special drum. Thanks to this, the bitter taste disappears. Among the sauces there are classic and original recipes, for example, the national Georgian baje sauce, which was taught to cook by a Georgian neighbor. Pesto sauce is one of Petukhov’s favorites, so it is also made for sale. Nut sauces with the addition of orange, mustard, pomegranate and chili are prepared by the man according to the author’s recipes, using only natural ingredients. The grant program from the Farming Development Center “Harvest of Victory” helped to improve product quality and market positioning. She helped bring in a technologist who perfected the recipe. This made it possible to extend the shelf life of pastes and sauces from two to three weeks to three months. Read also: 100% grant. How to write an application that will win According to the results of the analyzes of the State Production and Consumer Service laboratory, he selected preservatives of organic origin and antioxidants. They were chosen in such a way that the products were safe for children and the elderly. In particular, they use preservatives from egg whites and milk bacteria. Although the production of rural entrepreneurs is small, it was organized in compliance with the norms for the production of food products. Containers are sterilized before filling, product pasteurization technology, quartzization and surface treatment with disinfectants are used. In April, the family won a grant of the UK-RAIN-A 2.0 project for services in the development of technical documentation, drawing up a HACCP plan (an international standardization system that guarantees the production of safe products), development of a technological map and technical conditions of products. Since 2019, Ukrainian legislation obliges market operators to implement such a system at their factories. “Thanks to the grant, we were able to legalize our activities in accordance with the legislation, which increased the trust in our products on the part of buyers and corporate clients. This opened the way for us to expand our business and scale our activities to new markets,” – notes Petuhova. In the village where the production is located, many nut plantations grow on private farms, so there are no problems with raw materials. Entrepreneurs process up to 100 kg of nuts per month. “We buy nuts in our village and neighboring villages, we cooperate with farmers and owners of nut orchards. Our volumes are still small, so there are no problems with raw materials,” says Petukhova. Plans for the future The family sells its products mainly at fairs and a small part – via Instagram. In 2024, corporate orders appeared. In the plans for 2025 year – expanding the network of partners and retail outlets, increasing production volumes to 300 kg of products per month and increasing the assortment. “When we have people on a permanent basis, we will be able to increase the volume of production and enter the B2B sector – shops, coffee shops, restaurants. Restaurateurs told us that our sauces can be on the restaurant menu. Our product is interesting, at fairs with such products, we are usually the only ones,” says Petukhova. Now entrepreneurs are looking for investments to purchase a modular house that will meet the standards of HACCP. Grant programs are among the options. “Local craft food production is now actively developing. I was recently at the New Food Summit and big business said that they are paying attention to local production. Therefore, we will expand. We are also waiting for export opportunities, but that will be a little later,” the entrepreneur adds. . Read also: Cheese using NASA technology. How Ukrainians created a superfood that received a prestigious award in France. Since moving to Lviv region, she has attended various grant and mentoring programs, attended business training at Radar Tech, Startup Tech School, Silab, “Women’s Perspectives”, “Vona” and “Kryla” hubs “, Center for Support of Entrepreneurs, UNDP, regional business acceleration program from the project “Regional Recovery” with the support of the Government of Great Britain (UK International Development). “For the purchase of professional equipment, we attracted grants and it helped us a lot. We would have taken a long time to reach the current level ourselves,” the entrepreneur summarizes.