Which businesses will be eligible for reservations: The Ministry of Economy has updated the criteria
24 June 19:42
The Ministry of Economy, Environment, and Agriculture of Ukraine has revised the criteria for identifying enterprises of vital importance to the national economy, significantly increasing the requirements regarding the area of cultivated land, annual revenue, and average wage levels for business entities. The relevant changes were approved by Order No. 6954 dated June 24, 2026, according to "Komersant Ukrainian".
The document provides for stricter sector-specific and general thresholds for obtaining the status that allows enterprises to claim employee quotas.
What Has Changed
For the agricultural sector, the ministry has doubled the minimum area of cultivated land—from 500 hectares to 1,000 hectares—and the annual revenue threshold for agricultural enterprises has risen from 20 million UAH to 40 million UAH.
At the same time, the requirement to pay personal income tax of at least 324,000 UAH per quarter and the possibility of obtaining the status through ownership of 90% of the capital of other critically important enterprises have been removed from the list of sub-criteria. Instead, a mandatory requirement has been introduced for the agricultural sector to submit a copy of the tax calculation certified by the tax authority.
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In the forestry sector, the requirements for the area of land plots under permanent use have increased fivefold—from 500 hectares to 2,500 hectares. The alternative requirement regarding the number of insured employees has been reduced from 15 to 10 people; however, it must now be supplemented by a financial criterion—an annual income of at least 10 million UAH—which did not previously apply to forestry enterprises. In addition, hunting, engineering, geology, and other types of education have been excluded from the list of industry-specific KVED codes in this sector.
The order also introduces differentiated salary criteria for the general list of enterprises, which did not exist previously. For companies with an average workforce of more than 50 employees, the average salary must be no lower than the national average for the most recent reporting year, multiplied by a factor of 2; for enterprises with 20 or more employees, it must be no lower than the national average multiplied by a factor of 3. For interregional status (operations in three or more regions), mandatory conditions have been established: a staff of at least 10 employees and payment of taxes and social security contributions (excluding customs duties) of at least 24,000 UAH in each region over the past three months.
For permanent representative offices of non-residents, the salary threshold has also been raised: the average salary must not be lower than the national average multiplied by a factor of 3, whereas the previous version of the order applied a factor of 2.
In addition, manufacturers of domestically produced machinery and equipment may qualify for “economically significant” status if their products are included in the Ministry of Economy’s list of goods whose cost is partially subsidized by the state budget. This mechanism is implemented as part of a pilot project for partial compensation of the cost of domestically produced machinery within the framework of the All-Ukrainian economic platform “Made in Ukraine,” as well as through a separate program for partial compensation of the cost of agricultural machinery and equipment.
At the same time, the previous criteria remain unchanged. Enterprises are deemed critical if they receive state grants; provide services to the Ministry of Economy based on agreements (contracts) concluded for a term of at least 6 months; are under the management of the Ministry of Economy or are enterprises in which the state, represented by the Ministry of Economy, is the sole founder and shareholder; conduct expert reviews of draft regulatory and legal acts concerning the economy or foreign economic activity; operate in three or more regions of Ukraine; are members of an industrial park (IP); have entered into investment agreements involving significant investments in the processing or production of biogas or biomethane, or in the extraction and processing of minerals.
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