I like the agricultural sector: 25-year-old winner of the "Do Your Own" contest tells his success story
Kyiv • UNN
Dmytro Hryn, a 25-year-old Ukrainian entrepreneur, has won a business competition and is expanding his strawberry growing business with new greenhouses.
Dmytro Hryn, one of the youngest winners of the Do Your Own business idea competition, from Ladyzhyn, has an impressive biography. Dmytro is 25 years old, currently studying for his fourth degree, works in the agricultural sector at an enterprise and has launched his own business. The organizers of the competition, the MHP-Hromada Charitable Foundation, recorded an interview with Dmytro to inspire readers with the worldview of a representative of the younger generation of Ukrainian entrepreneurs, UNN reports.
Details
Dmytro said that after school he entered Polissia National University (Zhytomyr). There, he received a bachelor's degree in Energy, then a bachelor's degree in Engineering, then a master's degree as an agronomist, and is now studying Horticulture and Viticulture. Dmytro completed all his studies at one university. He chose agriculture because it is "to his liking." Dmytro also told us what motivated him to start an entrepreneurial activity.
"I did an internship from a university in Germany. There I learned how to plant and care for garden trees, and later had the opportunity to see what the full cycle of strawberry cultivation looks like. And he wanted to work with this particular berry in Ukraine. So I opened a sole proprietorship and began to realize my dream," he elaborated.
After completing his internship abroad, Dmytro built 2 greenhouses at home with a total area of 168 m2.
"I planted 1,400 strawberry bushes indoors on the hills using the Dutch system. During the season, he harvested about 400 kg of berries, which he sold in Ladyzhyn through his Instagram page. My father helped a little to build the greenhouse. But I did most of the work myself," he says.
Dmytro decided to take part in the Do It Yourself competition because he wanted to expand his existing business and extend the season: grow strawberries of different varieties with different ripening periods.
"This solution would provide 1/8 of the population of Ladyzhyn with fresh berries throughout the year. And in the spring - with vegetable seedlings. To realize my idea, I needed UAH 81 thousand. With these funds, I installed 3 more greenhouses measuring 4.2*20 meters each. In the greenhouses, I set up drip irrigation, arranged a solution unit for plant nutrition, and placed temperature and humidity sensors. I also built 2 smaller greenhouses at my own expense," he recalls.
Currently, Dmytro has 7 greenhouses. 2200 bushes of common strawberries, 1200 remontant varieties and 600 early strawberries. In the future, he plans to hire seasonal workers to pick the berries.
"Moreover, my plans are not to stop there," he summarized.
It should be noted that Do Your Own is a business idea competition aimed at supporting micro-entrepreneurship in villages and small towns to strengthen Ukraine's economy. In 2023, the MHP for Communities charitable foundation, which organizes the competition, supported 80 business projects worth over UAH 7.4 million.
Help
"MHP-Hromadas is a Ukrainian charitable foundation that started its operations in 2015. Its main mission is the comprehensive development of communities. The geography of its activities includes 12 regions of Ukraine: more than 700 towns and villages. Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Foundation has been systematically supporting people in the regions of hostilities, Ukrainian defenders and rescuers, communities, hospitals and maternity homes, charitable institutions that care for orphans and the elderly, as well as people who have lost their homes and livelihoods due to the war.
