Alef's Potoky Oil Plant in Dnipro Suspends Operations Following Kernel Shutdown

Ukraine's sunflower oil industry has suffered another blow. The Potoky oil extraction plant in the city of Dnipro, owned by the Alef corporation, has temporarily suspended its operations, following the example of the Kernel agricultural holding, which earlier halted all of its oil extraction plants, Latifundist.com reported.

The company reported that the Potoky plant is temporarily suspending both the purchase of sunflower seeds and their processing from 13 November. It explained that the reasons for the suspension were power outages, a difficult security situation and the need to carry out restoration work following previous attacks on the facility.

Latifundist.com noted that this was not the first time the plant had come under fire: Russian forces had attacked the facility in the past, specifically in May 2026.

The company stressed that the decision had been made primarily for the safety of its employees and to create proper conditions for the future operation of the facility. Alef added that it would provide further updates on the resumption of production activities and the purchase of raw materials, but gave no date for a restart.

The Potoky oil extraction plant has been operating since 2018. According to the publication, the facility can carry out a fully closed technological cycle of oilseed processing, and its production capacity stands at 1,400 tonnes per day.

The suspension in Dnipro came shortly after Kernel, Ukraine's largest producer and exporter of sunflower oil, announced it was halting operations at all of its oil extraction plants because of massive Russian strikes on food industry facilities.

Earlier, the Ukroliyaprom association stated that Russia was deliberately striking Ukraine's oil and fat industry facilities in order to destroy this export-oriented sector.

It was previously reported that Ukraine is unable to process its entire oilseed harvest. The country's total nameplate processing capacity stands at about 23 million tonnes, but actual processing is only about 17 million tonnes.

Since the beginning of the full-scale war, ten new oil plants have been built in Ukraine, yet the capacities of existing companies are still not being fully utilised.

Until the Potoky plant resumes operations, it will neither purchase sunflower seeds nor process them, leaving suppliers waiting for the company's promised updates.