Responsible Business in Practice: Our UK–Ukraine Cold-Pressed Oil Supply Chain

When you pick up a bottle of cold-pressed oil in a British kitchen, the label tells you what it is. It rarely tells you who made it, how, or whether the books behind it are clean. For most products on most shelves, that is fine. For us, it is the part that matters most.

This week, our production partner in Ukraine, M Plus Group LLC, was personally acknowledged by Danylo Hetmantsev, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy, as one of the leading taxpayers of 2025 in Ukraine’s oil and animal fats sector. The recognition was published on his official channel and is available here.

We are not writing this to celebrate a piece of news. We are writing it because the recognition makes something visible that we have always asked our customers and partners to take on faith: that the supply chain behind every bottle of Natura Harmony is as transparent on paper as it is in the field, in the press room, and on the shelf.

What was recognised, and why it matters

Hetmantsev’s statement is short and specific. He thanks the leadership of M Plus Group LLC personally for responsible business conduct, names the company as one of the leaders in the 2025 ranking of best taxpayers in the oil and animal fats production sector, and points to its investment in energy independence, modern production solutions, and active work on external markets, including the European Union, India, and China.

The closing line of his post is the part worth reading twice: companies like this, by their example, form the basis for a sustainable national economy where honest work and transparent tax payment become the baseline standard.

For a Ukrainian state institution to publicly single out a private producer for tax compliance — in the middle of a full-scale war, with all the budgetary pressure that entails — is not a routine PR exercise. It is, in plain terms, a signal to the wider business community about which companies are pulling their weight. M Plus Group is the producer behind every bottle of Natura Harmony oil sold in the United Kingdom. That is what made the recognition relevant to us.

What “responsible business” actually means in a war economy

The phrase “responsible business” gets used a lot. In peacetime it usually refers to ESG reporting, fair employment, and environmental disclosures. Useful, but increasingly diluted by overuse.

In a country at war, the meaning sharpens. Responsible business means:

• Paying every tax owed, in full, on time, when the temptation and the operational excuses to do otherwise have never been greater
• Keeping production running — and people employed — through power disruptions, infrastructure damage, and air raid alerts
• Investing in energy independence rather than waiting for the grid to recover, which is why M Plus Group’s main facility now operates on its own solar capacity
• Holding international certifications (ISO 22000 for food safety management, in our case) when re-auditing under wartime conditions is logistically harder and more expensive than ever
• Continuing to export, which keeps foreign currency flowing into the Ukrainian economy and signals to international buyers that supply chains out of Ukraine remain viable

None of these are marketing positions. They are the practical, daily decisions that distinguish a producer who is part of the country’s recovery from one who is simply waiting it out. You can read more about the solar-powered production facility on our blog. It is, in our view, one of the more concrete answers to the question of what sustainable production looks like in 2026.

Our supply chain, end to end

When we set up Natura Harmony LTD in the United Kingdom, we made a deliberate choice not to build a brand around vague claims of provenance. The structure is simple, and we have never tried to obscure it.

The producer

M Plus Group LLC is a family-run Ukrainian manufacturer founded by brothers Oleksandr and Yevhen Melnyk. They began with a small workshop and a focused interest in cold-pressing technology, and built it into a facility that now produces more than 25 cold-pressed oil varieties, including some you will not easily find anywhere else in the world: fig seed, chilli pepper, and rare niche oils developed for international clients.

The brand

Natura Harmony LTD is registered in the United Kingdom and operates under UK law. We work with the producer not as a buyer at arm’s length, but as a partner involved in product development, certification, packaging standards, and the way our oils are presented to British consumers. You can read more on our Brand Story page.

The standards

Every oil in our 21-strong range is GMO-free, vegan, 100% pure, and produced under ISO 22000-certified food safety management. BRCGS and UKCA certifications are scheduled for 2026. We do not blend, dilute, or refine. The oil that comes off the press is the oil that goes into the bottle.

The shelf

From the production facility in Ukraine, our oils reach UK customers through three channels: our own store, Amazon UK, and eBay. For trade buyers, our B2B offering covers wholesale distribution, private-label production, and bespoke oil development from a minimum order of 10 litres.

What Hetmantsev’s statement adds to that picture is third-party confirmation that the company at the start of the chain — the one doing the actual pressing — runs a clean book. That is not nothing.

The UK–Ukraine partnership, in practice

The commercial relationship between the UK and Ukraine has been steadily formalising since Brexit. The UK–Ukraine Political, Free Trade and Strategic Partnership Agreement was signed in October 2020, ratified by Ukraine’s parliament in August 2023, and currently provides for tariff-free trade on virtually all goods between the two countries until 31 March 2029. This was confirmed most recently in a written answer to the House of Lords on 18 December 2025.

The agreement was further extended in 2024, when the UK Government confirmed the five-year liberalisation of tariffs on Ukrainian goods, with the Department for Business and Trade explicitly noting the importance of the deal for sectors including “oils, grains and other agri-foods.” The complementary UK–Ukraine Digital Trade Agreement, which came into force on 1 September 2024, made cross-border commercial operations between the two countries faster and cheaper through provisions for e-signatures, e-contracts, and secure digital transactions. The full agreement collection is published on GOV.UK.

In practice, this means the route from a Ukrainian press to a British kitchen is shorter and clearer than it has ever been. Tariff-free, digitally enabled, and underpinned by a strategic partnership rather than a transactional one. For a brand like ours, it means we can keep our pricing competitive without cutting corners on production. For UK customers, it means a wider choice of premium products from a country with one of Europe’s deepest agricultural traditions.

It is worth being honest about what this partnership also is: a quiet form of economic support to a country defending itself. Every bottle exported through the agreement contributes to Ukraine’s tax base, employment, and foreign currency reserves. We do not lead our marketing with that, but we will not pretend it is not part of the picture either.

What this means for retail customers

If you buy a bottle of cold-pressed oil from us, here is what you are actually buying.

A product pressed by a producer who has been publicly recognised by the Ukrainian state for tax transparency and responsible operation. A product made in a facility powered by its own solar capacity, audited under ISO 22000, and operating on standards that allow it to export to some of the most demanding markets in the world. A product brought to the UK under a formal trade and partnership agreement, with full customs documentation and no shortcuts.

You are not buying a story. You are buying an oil whose provenance can be traced, line by line, all the way back to the seed.

What this means for B2B partners

For wholesalers, retailers, private-label clients, and ingredient buyers, the signal is more direct. The cleanliness of a supply chain is not just an ethical question. It is a commercial one. Counterparty risk, audit trails, and tax exposure on imported goods are increasingly central to procurement decisions, particularly in regulated sectors like food and personal care.

Working with M Plus Group through Natura Harmony LTD means working with a UK-registered legal entity, contracting under UK law, sourcing from a producer with a documented compliance record, and benefiting from the operational simplicity of the UK–Ukraine FTA. We can offer competitive pricing, low MOQs starting from 10 litres, and adaptable packaging, without asking partners to take any part of our supply chain on trust.

If you would like to explore that, our B2B page is the right place to start, or you can reach us directly at office@naturaharmony.co.uk.

A closing thought

There is a temptation, when something positive happens, to make a louder noise about it than it deserves. We have tried to resist that here.

The recognition Oleksandr Melnyk and the M Plus Group team received this week is significant not because it changes anything about how we operate, but because it confirms something we have always said: that the foundations of this brand are clean. The seeds are real. The press is real. The certifications are real. The tax returns are real. And the partnership between two countries that makes all of this possible is real, formal, and worth taking seriously.

That is what responsible business looks like, in our view. Not a slogan. A traceable chain.

Be one with nature.