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Welcome to Zoloti Luky

Our farm is located in the village of Parijvka near Illintsi in the Vinnitsa region, 220 km southwest of Kyiv (west-central Ukraine). We farm around 300 hectares of land with 40 people and currently keep around 250 dairy cows and 120 rearing animals.

In the farm’s own dairy, we process some of the milk into cheese, pasteurized milk, yogurt and other dairy products. We provide consumers with information about our dairy products on our Ukrainian website at www.zolotiluky.ua.

Zoloti Luky GmbH was founded in 2006 and is owned by three partners. Vadym Rekunenko, Hans Ryter and Thomas Graf.

Our goal is sustainable and profitable milk production. To achieve this, we rely on good forage during the growing season and high-quality winter feed as well as a healthy and long-lived dairy herd. Our valuable employees come from the region and we are the largest employer in the village of Parijvka.

What are we currently working on at the dairy farm?

AGAIN AND AGAIN: MANY THANKS TO ALL OUR SUPPORTERS!

Since the Russian attack on 24 February 2022, we have taken all possible measures to make the business more resilient and provide direct support on the ground where help is needed.
Thanks to financial support from donations, we were able to maintain operations and alleviate hardship at the beginning of the war. For example, we regularly supply our own dairy products free of charge to local hospitals and provide targeted support for other local initiatives.

From time to time we report from Parijvka, below you can download the latest reports:

Report from Parijvka (December 2024) > DOWNLOAD
Report from Parijvka (June 2024) > DOWNLOAD
Report from Parijvka (December 2023) > DOWNLOAD

Donations are still useful and we are very grateful if we still have some reserves in the aid account after the winter. Here are the coordinates of Zoloti Luky’s support account:
Berner Kantonalbank AG, Bundesplatz 8, 3011 Bern
IBAN number: CH81 0079 0016 5854 6841 2
in the name of Graf Thomas & Ryter Hans in 3237 Brüttelen

For more information, please contact us by email, Hans Ryter hans.ryter@zolotiluky.com or Thomas Graf thomas.graf@zolotiluky.com

Milestones

2025
Photovoltaic system on the cheese dairy
Due to the unstable power supply caused by the war, we are constantly reliant on our electricity generator. The stable operation of the new cheese dairy facilities is limited during these times and it is difficult to maintain stable product quality. In order to better cover our electricity requirements and also to counteract the high costs of purchasing electricity from the grid, we want to install a photovoltaic system on the roof of the cheese dairy. Our aim is to be able to put this into operation in the first half of the year.
2024
Second Western tractor and Ukrainian website for consumers
In order to keep the farm going, we have to make investments despite the war. Our Belarus tractors are getting older and need to be gradually replaced. We are purchasing a new DEUTZ tractor.
This year, we also launched our Ukrainian website www.zolotiluky.ua with a target group of “consumers” of our own cheese dairy products.

2024
2023
Expansion of the farm's own cheese dairy
Due to the Russian war, we will only be able to install the small-scale dairy facilities with a delay. By the end of the year, we will be able to concentrate on gradually converting production to the new facilities, expanding sales and increasing production accordingly. Provided, of course, that our region is spared the effects of the war.
2022
War!
On February 24, 2022, Russia attacks Ukraine. From one day to the next, we hardly receive any operating resources such as diesel, seeds or cheese cultures for the dairy and fear that we will suddenly no longer be able to deliver our milk every day. Despite having our own farm cheese dairy, we are dependent on the nearby milk processor to buy most of our milk. We take all possible measures to ensure the survival of our business.
Our local people cope reasonably well with the first year of the war, as the hostilities do not take place directly in our region.

2022
2020
Acquisition of equipment to expand our cheese dairy
We can only process limited quantities of milk with the existing simple cheese dairy equipment. The motivated and trained staff is available and the demand for good local dairy products is increasing. We have the opportunity to acquire the facilities of a small dairy in central Switzerland, including a plate pasteurizer and homogenizer. This enables us to make the cheese dairy more efficient with the existing staff. The implementation is slowed down by the coronavirus crisis, and the equipment could only be transported from Bürglen UR to Ukraine in 2021.
2019
First tractor from the West
When we started Zoloti Luky in 2007, we bought tractors from Belarus. These have less capital tied up than tractors from the West, but are prone to breakdowns and the operating costs are high. Since Russia annexed Crimea and started the war in Donbass, we have stopped all purchases of Russian or Belarusian agricultural machinery. This spring, we purchased our first western tractor, a CASE MAXXUM 125.

2019
2016
Start of production in the cheese dairy
The new farm cheese dairy goes into operation with a small range of products on a quasi-experimental basis and for the purpose of building up expertise. We sell the products in the farm store and to individual food stores in the region.
2014
Decision to set up a farm cheese dairy
In 2014, Russia occupied Crimea and took off in eastern Ukraine. This put the plans to switch to organic production on hold. We had already made preparations for this and, for example, procured a hoe for mechanical weed control in maize. Furthermore, the Ukrainian hryvnia depreciated sharply and we decided to stop using the funds earned in the local currency, the hryvnia, to pay off loans in Swiss francs and instead set up our own small farm cheese dairy. We started planning and building the new cheese dairy on the site of the old sheepfold on our farm premises.

2014
2011
Vadym Rekunenko becomes operations manager
Vadym Rekunenko has been working as a full-time operations manager since the beginning of the year. Hans Ryter and Thomas Graf continue to provide support and can therefore devote themselves more specifically to the targeted improvements in work processes. Before the end of November, the new gestation and calving barn built this year will be put into operation. This will allow us to organize calving and calf work much better and reduce a lot of manual work compared to the temporary calving barn. This leaves more time for key work. On September 30, 2011, Swiss television broadcast a report that was also filmed at Zoloti Luky.
2010
Start of targeted breeding work
With the introduction of artificial insemination and the use of Canadian breeding bulls, we started targeted breeding work with our still very heterogeneous dairy herd. In addition to a new hard outdoor area, our dairy cows benefit from the use of the feed mixer wagon from winter feeding onwards. The infrastructure was further improved and ventilation and upper windows were installed in two stables so that the animals also have better air and more light inside in winter.

2010
2009
Purchase of the feed and machine hall
For the first time, we were able to deliver milk for a full calendar year and harvest fodder from all the leased land. We also bought the large feed storage hall and continued the construction work intensively. By the end of the year, the new rearing barn and the slurry storage facility were up and running.
2008
Our first calf
In 2008, we saw the first results in the fields and made significant progress in animal husbandry. The first calf was born in September. We were able to put the indoor barn with 220 cubicles into operation just in time for the winter and the 2 x 8 fish milking parlor went into operation in December.

2008
2007
Start fodder production and build up the herd
In spring 2007, we bought the company buildings and started the operational work. The first areas of weedy fields had to be made usable again and grass mixtures for pasture and fodder conservation had to be cultivated. We also bought the first 150 rearing calves in the area and started rearing them. We had to procure the first machines, set up the water supply on the farm and furnish the first buildings provisionally for the coming winter.
2006
Foundation of Zoloti Luky GmbH
Once we had made the fundamental decision to set up a dairy farm, we formulated our strategy and started looking for a property. In the same year, we founded the company Zoloti Luky Ltd. and, after deciding on Parijvka, concluded the lease agreements.

Zoloti Luky is Ukrainian and means “golden willows”.

2006

For investors

For the launch of Zoloti Luky, we were able to count on a loan from the Swiss Startup Fund of the Swiss State Secretariat seco.

At the end of 2009, we had the riskiest first phase behind us and since then we have been generating a regular and steadily increasing cash flow from the milk we sell every day. The SSF start-up loan was amortized as planned from 2009 and our debt capital has since been financed by the owners and other private investments.

In 2014, we decided to build a small dairy in addition to the farm. From 2017, we were already able to produce smaller quantities of dairy products from our own milk. In 2020, we invested in further plants to expand capacity, which went into operation with a delay at the end of 2023.

We are constantly coming up with ideas for additional concrete investments linked to our core business on site. In addition, the war requires adjustments to our financing. Accordingly, new lenders are always welcome.

Interested parties are welcome to obtain further information on financing, projects and the current return on capital from Thomas Graf thomas.graf@zolotiluky.com .

Contact us

ТОВ “Золоті луки” / Zoloti Luky Ltd.
22726 Україна / Ukraina
Вінницька обл., / Winnitska Oblast
Вінницький район / Winnitsky rayon
с. Паріївка / Parijvka
вул. Садова 18 / Uliza Sadova 18

Vadym Wolodimirovich Rekunenko: vadym.rekunenko@zolotiluky.com
Hans Ryter: hans.ryter@zolotiluky.com
Thomas Graf: thomas.graf@zolotiluky.com
T +380 96 275 76 95

Welcome to Zoloti Luky

What are we currently working on at the dairy farm?

Milestones

2025

2024

2024

2023

2022

2022

2020

2019

2019

2016

2014

2014

2011

2010

2010

2009

2008

2008

2007

2006

2006

For investors

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Zoloti Luky

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