Education & Early Career

A self-made businessman, Yuriy Kosyuk was born in 1968 in Katerynopil, a small town in the Cherkasy region of central Ukraine. The technical training he gained during his studies at the National University of Food Technologies in Kyiv would prove foundational to MHP’s corporate DNA – a business built around full vertical integration, with every element of the supply chain owned, controlled, and optimised as part of a single coherent system.

Founding of MHP

In 1998, Kosyuk founded MHP, planting the seeds from which the globally recognised agricultural powerhouse would grow. What followed was the systematic construction of a fully vertically integrated business, spanning grain cultivation and feed production through to processing, branding, and retail a model that was virtually unheard of in the region at the time. Expansion into Ukraine’s poultry meat sector was a natural next step from these upstream operations and in 2002 MHP launched its poultry consumer brand Nasha Ryaba – which swiftly grew to become a household name in Ukraine.

Kosyuk's conviction that long term value in food production is built on quality and consumer trust rather than volume and price has guided MHP on its journey to become the leading force in the Ukrainian poultry sector.

Growth and Transformation

Since its founding MHP has had a profound impact on Ukraine's poultry market. At a time when chicken was sold exclusively in frozen form, Kosyuk introduced chilled poultry to Ukrainian consumers – a move that fundamentally reshaped the market and established MHP as an innovator as much as a producer.

MHP’s ambitious growth plans required access to international capital which the company secured with the same discipline it applied to production – beginning with a strategic partnership with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and culminating in its 2008 IPO on the London Stock Exchange. This marked the company’s clear commitment to adhere to the transparency and governance standards of international capital markets that would open the company to global institutional investors.

The same year marked MHP's debut on the international debt markets with its first Eurobond issuance, a $250 million offering listed on the London Stock Exchange. Exports followed. With access to international capital secured, MHP was able to invest in the logistics capabilities needed to export its products around the world – a distribution network that today supplies more than 70 countries.

In 2011, under Kosyuk's leadership, MHP completed the Vinnytsia Poultry Farm – one of the world's largest poultry production facilities, and a tangible expression of his global ambition.

Global vision

In 2019 MHP acquired Perutnina Ptuj, a leading poultry producer in Southeastern Europe. Since then, production has increased by 50%, EBITDA has grown from $34 million to $91 million, and the workforce has expanded from 3,600 to over 5,100 – a record that reflects MHP’s operational rather than extractive approach to business.

In 2025, MHP extended its European footprint further with the acquisition of Grupo UVESA, one of Spain's leading vertically integrated poultry and pork producers – a transaction that significantly strengthened the company's presence in Western European and Middle Eastern markets.

MHP has continued to demonstrate its standing with international investors in the most challenging of circumstances: in early 2025, the company closed a $450 million Eurobond issuance at 10.5%, maturing in 2029 – the first such placement by a Ukrainian company since the start of the full-scale invasion.

Pursuit of Culinary Excellence

Whilst continuing to grow MHP's core production business, Kosyuk has pursued a longer-term transformation of the company into a culinary and food innovation enterprise. Since 2019, MHP has invested in ready-to-cook and ready-to-eat product development and developed a portfolio of consumer-facing retail formats, including Nasha Ryaba stores, MeatMarket butcher shops, and Döner Market fast-food establishments. In 2021, MHP established Eastern Europe's first dedicated Culinary Centre – an investment in food research and development that spoke to a founder whose hunger for innovation remains unsatiated.

Social Stewardship

For Kosyuk, MHP's success has carried with it a responsibility that extends beyond the commercial. He founded the MHP-Hromadi Charitable Foundation which supports a vast range of community development programmes for remote rural settlements, working in partnership with local authorities and civil society organisations. To date the foundation has helped support more than 3.2 million people across multiple regions of Ukraine.

MHP has consistently been ranked as the largest taxpayer in Ukraine's agricultural sector, and in 2024 was listed among the top five private investors in the country by Forbes.

National Resilience

Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Kosyuk has fought to maintain MHP's operations amid the gravest crisis in Ukraine's modern history. Through the MHP Standing Together programme, the company has provided comprehensive medical, psychological, legal, and social assistance to staff serving in Ukraine's armed forces, returning veterans, and their families – with the company investing $71 million USD in this cause since the full-scale war began. Throughout the conflict MHP has paid the full salaries of mobilised employees serving on the front line – with over 3,000 of the company’s employees currently serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. MHP has further pledged to continue paying full salaries to the families of those employees who have made the ultimate sacrifice, for a period of ten years.

Under Kosyuk’s leadership MHP has invested more than $3.1 million USD in Ukrainian cultural preservation and development, supporting literature, theatre, music, cinema, and heritage projects – recognising culture as a pillar of national resilience at a moment when it is under direct threat.

Yuriy Kosyuk – Founder and Chief Executive Officer MHP