Local Farmers in Vinnytsia Region Get Their Own Market with Support from the MHP-Hromadi Charitable Foundation

A new trading space has opened in the village of Krasnopilka, Haisyn district, for local smallholders and entrepreneurs from the surrounding area. The initiative was implemented as part of the Time to Act, Ukraine! social initiatives competition run by the MHP-Hromadi Charitable Foundation.

The new market has individual stalls. Here residents will sell fruit and vegetables from their own gardens and orchards, as well as home baking, meat products, flowers and fresh fish. For local producers, it is a chance to reach more customers. For people in Krasnopilka and neighbouring villages, it is a chance to buy fresh, home-produced food directly from the people who grow and make it.

The idea of building a proper market came from the local community itself. Vendors often used to sell their produce straight off the ground, and residents had been discussing the need for a market since 2018.

The competition finally made it possible to bring the idea to life. The project budget totalled UAH 949,000, of which UAH 100,000 was provided by the Foundation.

Volodymyr from Krasnopilka is among those already making use of the new opportunity. He grows apples, pears and plums in his own orchard. This year’s harvest was abundant, he says, but finding buyers for all of it has not been easy:

“Everything here is from my orchard: pears, apples, plums. I do a bit of selling — it’s a nice top-up to my pension. We had a really good crop this year, but there was nowhere to sell it. Now, thanks to the market, there’s a place where I can lay everything out properly and neatly, and little by little people are buying.”

This year, the Time to Act, Ukraine! competition received nearly 600 applications from communities eager to put their own initiatives into practice and develop their local economies.

“Nearly 600 applications this year represent hundreds of ideas born within communities themselves. The market in Krasnopilka is one of them: people knew what they needed and came up with the solution themselves. These are exactly the kinds of initiatives we support — when a community comes together and takes action, we step in as a partner to help bring the idea to life. This is how local initiatives become part of the region’s economic development, and how communities grow stronger,” said Volodymyr Zabela, Director of the MHP-Hromadi Charitable Foundation.

The new market has become more than just a place to trade. It is also a space that brings together producers and buyers from Krasnopilka and nearby villages. Seasonal and holiday fairs are planned here in the future.