AT Market LLC (Kyiv), bottling high-mountain Carpathian water under the Voda UA trademark, has invested $600,000 in expanding its product line and launched the production of a drink made from kombucha.

"We built a plant in Irpin before the war. We invested about $600,000. During the occupation of Irpin, the plant was damaged, but it was quickly restored," the owner and founder of the company, Dmytro Nikiforov, told Interfax-Ukraine.

According to him, when making a decision on investments, the company was guided by the lack of real kombucha on the Ukrainian market. "There are some surrogates and lemonades based on tea," Nikiforov said.

He said that the company decided to start producing the "good product," so the process is led by a skilled technologist and everything is done technologically very correctly.

According to him, the plant can produce 2 tonnes of kombucha daily, which is sold in 0.33 glass bottles under the TM Kombucha uno. It is planned to use 800-850 HORECA points, as well as five or six retail chains to sell the new drink. In May 2023, the manufacturer plans to launch flavored kombucha with five or six different flavors.

Nikiforov said that he expects kombucha to grow in popularity in Ukraine as it happens in the world as a "healthy alternative to various kvass and lemonades."

Since 2019, the Ukrainian market for this drink has doubled annually. In the year of war of 2022, the market capacity was estimated at 120 million bottles. In 2023, consumption is expected to increase by 150%, the company anticipates.