"Under the guise of chicory". Every third ton of coffee is imported illegally – Hetmantsev

Every third ton of coffee is imported to Ukraine illegally, and the state loses more than a billion hryvnias a year on this group of goods alone. This was reported to by the head of the parliamentary committee on taxes and finance Danylo Hetmantsev .

MP appeals to the State Customs Service and the Bureau of Economic Security to pay attention to the situation.

"Three thousand tons of illegal coffee (or every third ton) is smuggled into Ukraine every year, past the wide-eyed eyes of customs officers and law enforcement. Under the guise of chicory, the volume of imports of which (you really started drinking chicory instead of water, right?) has grown many times over the past two years. Or even in the black," Hetmantsev wrote on Telegram.

Then, according to him, this coffee is either sold for cash or packaged under international brands and also sold for cash.

"And it's not just Stolichka, Volynska in Kyiv, or Seventh Kilometer in Odesa. These are also numerous food retail chains, chopped up into individual entrepreneurs," said the MP.

"The state loses more than a billion a year on this group of goods alone, but the consumer also receives low-quality, counterfeit goods. The inability of the state to confront fraudsters, or the ability of some "state officials" to participate in them, is striking," added the chairman of the relevant committee of the Rada.

• In January 2025, the BES stopped large-scale production of counterfeit coffee of well-known global brands, which was hidden in warehouses near Kyiv. Property worth more than UAH 20 million was seized.
• According to the BES, a court ruling returned part of the seized property to the owners, allowing them to resume their illegal activities. In July, during the investigation of a criminal proceeding on illegal coffee production in Kyiv region, law enforcement officers seized 11 luxury cars .