In Ukraine, borscht is not just a culinary dish, but a matter of national pride, inscribed in 2022 on the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage requiring immediate protection.
Moreover, Ukrainian journalists, following the example of the “Big Mac Index” invented by the British publication The Economist, have developed a “borscht index” to assess the state of the national economy.
And so it turned out that in the agrarian country, vegetables were in short supply because the most profitable crops are corn and sunflower, while investing in vegetables is too risky and expensive, zn.ua wrote.
There are many recipes for borscht, the index of borscht is usually tied to vegetables, but there is among the ingredients of the dish meat – pork or beef. And Ukraine in 2025 increased purchases of pork abroad 13 times: the volume of supplies reached 30.8 thousand tons and cost $76.3 million. The main suppliers are EU countries.
Also the customs data for 2025 on the vegetable range clearly demonstrate: the dependence on imports is rapidly growing. The value of imported vegetables exceeded $426 million, which is 39.5% more than in 2024. Among the main items that formed the above figure are tomatoes. They were imported for $128 mln, plus 13% compared to 2024. Physical volumes of supplies grew by 4.3% and amounted to 94.2 thousand tons.
Onions were imported by 23 thousand tons for $29.7 million (+18%), cabbage – more than 48 thousand tons for $44.9 million (a record 86% growth). Carrots and beets, traditional for Cherkassy or Poltava vegetable gardens, were imported intensively. The position “carrots, beets, radish” cost $27.8 mln, or increased 4.6 times.
In particular, on cabbage earned: North Macedonia – 16.9 thousand tons for $14.1 million, Poland – 12.7 thousand tons for $10.8 million, the Netherlands – 7.1 thousand tons for $6.2 million, Italy – 2.3 thousand tons for $5.9 million, Moldova – 1.7 thousand tons for $0.98 million.
In general, according to last year’s results, the main suppliers of fresh vegetables for Ukraine were Turkey (33.6% of the total volume), Poland (17.6%), and the Netherlands (13%).
