The Russian missile and drone attack on August 20 damaged, in particular, food warehouses in Boryspil. Despite the damage to large logistics facilities, a large-scale food shortage is not expected in Ukraine and Kyiv. However, experts do not predict a sharp increase in food prices, except for some categories. This was reported to Delo.ua by the director of UTG company Evgenia Loktionova. According to her, attacks on warehouse infrastructure create additional pressure on logistics and the warehouse real estate market. But so far the situation is under control.

“There is no critical or large-scale shortage of food in Ukraine and Kyiv, and the situation with food supply remains completely under the control of the government and large retailers,” says Evgenia Loktionova. Networks are quickly restructuring logistics: they are redirecting product flows to alternative regional sites and are gradually moving to a more decentralized system with a network of smaller logistics hubs.

“The destruction of warehouses creates additional pressure on the cost of goods, but there will be no sharp jump in prices for everything,” the expert assures. According to her, the most sensitive to the shortage of warehouse capacity may be goods that require a constant temperature regime. Accordingly, we should expect an increase in the price of certain categories. “For goods that require constant cooling (“cold logistics”: dairy products, fresh meat, frozen semi-finished products), the price on the shelves may increase by 5-7% due to the acute shortage of specialized refrigerated warehouses in the Kyiv region”.

At the same time, the main consequence of the attacks on the real estate market is the reduction in the available supply of high-quality warehouse space. “Attacks on logistics infrastructure have caused a critical shortage of space and have radically changed the structure of demand for warehouse real estate,” admits the director of UTG.

According to UTG, the vacancy rate of warehouse space in the Kyiv region is already about 2%, which experts consider an extreme indicator. According to Loktionova, it is now almost impossible to find a ready and free warehouse of class A or B (especially with refrigeration equipment) in the immediate vicinity of Kyiv.

The destruction of food hubs has provoked a surge in demand for specialized temperature warehouses (for meat, dairy products, freezing). Additional demand is already affecting rental rates. “Due to the severe shortage, the cost of renting dry warehouses in hryvnia equivalent has already increased by an average of 9% since the beginning of the year and is 200-250 UAH/sq. m/month. After the last attacks in August, we can predict further strengthening of prime rates,” Loktionova notes.

Thus, damage to food warehouses does not automatically mean a shortage of food on the shelves. However, for the logistics real estate market, the consequences may be more tangible: a reduction in supply, an increase in demand for warehouse space and, above all, an acute shortage of facilities with temperature control.

The attack on August 20 was another blow to the logistics infrastructure of the Kyiv region. Earlier, during the massive attack on August 5, damage to warehouses of large trade and logistics companies in the Kyiv region was also reported. We will also recall that due to another massive attack by the Russian Federation on the night of August 20, the warehouse of the French cosmetics brand Yves Rocher in Ukraine was significantly damaged. The brand has stopped accepting online orders.