After building his capital through trading Russian coal, Dmytro Kovalenko shifted his focus to the grain market, with ambitions of dominating the sector and becoming a leading recipient of state tenders.
The group of companies «Granova» of businessman Dmytro Kovalenko, formed in 2023, is rapidly expanding its influence on the Ukrainian agricultural market, while receiving dubious preferences and being involved in criminal proceedings.
One of the most striking examples is the port of «Chornomorsk», where with the assistance of the director of the state enterprise, former customs officer Vyacheslav Bezruk, «Granova» received preferential grain transshipment conditions. Under the signed memorandum, the companies plan to transship over a million tons of agricultural products in the 2025–2026 marketing year. At the same time, the tariff for «Granova» is only $2.5 per ton, which is four times lower than the market rate ($10). There is also a prospect of further price reduction.
Dmytro Kovalenko, who was actively trading Russian coal as early as autumn 2022, reinvested the earned funds into the agricultural sector. His Swiss Adelon AG alone purchased coal from the Russian company «MelTEK» for over $87 million. In total, the purchase volumes exceeded $100 million.
To operate in the port, the businessman in 2024 acquired the Kyiv company «Overfood» (previously – «Ingreen-LTD»), re-registered it in Chornomorsk, and renamed it to «Granova Logistic», making his son Daniil Kovalenko the beneficiary. Valentin Lytvyn became the director. Founder – Cypriot offshore Afex Investments Limited, registered in 2023.
Meanwhile, the Bureau of Economic Security is investigating criminal proceeding No. 42024170000000045 on the fact of tax evasion (Part 3 of Article 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) by Dmytro Kovalenko’s companies. According to the investigation, «Granova Ukraine» and affiliated structures buy grain for cash without recording it in the accounts, formalize it through enterprises with signs of fictitiousness, and then export it without repatriating the foreign exchange proceeds to Ukraine.
The schemes involve companies with almost identical names – LLC and Private Enterprise «Velykobagachansky Kombikormovyi Zavod», which are used to legalize unrecorded products. Through them, from August 2023 to June 2024, over 14 thousand tons of grain worth over 83.5 million UAH were officially sold to «Granova» – of dubious origin. Exports are carried out through the country’s largest seaports, including Izmail, Chornomorsk, Pivdenny, and Odesa, to over 12 countries worldwide.
In addition to the agricultural sector, Kovalenko expanded his business in salt supply. In December 2023, he created the company LLC «Salt Industry», founded by Afex Investments Limited as well. The director became the former director of the state enterprise «Artemsil» Viktor Yurin. In the first year, «Salt Industry» won 68 out of 73 state tenders for the supply of technical salt to communal and road services for a total of 90 million UAH.
Kovalenko’s business empire also includes industrial assets. With the support of the already former head of the Mukachevo RDA Serhiy Haidai, he leased over 10 hectares of land in Svalyava for 35 years for the «Energy Group» industrial park. There, production of glass and window structures («Energy Glass Technologies») is deployed, and a number of related companies are registered.
Thus, Dmytro Kovalenko, using the capital earned from trade with Russia, built a vertically integrated business that covers the agricultural sector, logistics, state tenders, salt imports, and industrial production — and all this, not without the help of state structures and shadow schemes.
