The Sleeping Horse. Will the First Hemp Corporation Become Big?

In Ukraine, there's an industry that experts call a sleeping giant: the cultivation and processing of industrial hemp. As of 2023, the market volume in Ukraine reached $10.5 million, according to BRDO The global market is worth $4 billion.

However, hemp cultivation in Ukraine is a vicious cycle. Farmers don't plant hemp because almost no one buys it for processing. In turn, processors lack hemp raw materials.

Yuriy Marchuk, the owner of the First Hemp Corporation, has figured out how to wake up the horse and break the cycle. His partners already include MHP and TAS Agro. In 2024, according to Opendatabot, the hemp enterprise doubled its revenue, receiving almost 118,000 UAH.