You're reading: Agriculture Ministry to return Magarach trademark to Institute for Winegrowing and Winemaking

The Agrarian Policy and Food Ministry of Ukraine is planning to return the Magarach trademark, which was passed to the ownership of a foreign company, to the Magarach Institute for Winegrowing and Winemaking.

"We will return the Magarach trademark to consumers, as it always belonged to our country and its citizens. This is the property of the institute, and we will do everything possible to develop it," the press service cited Ukrainian Agriculture and Food Minister Mykola Prysiazhniuk as saying on May 5.

He charged the president of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine with carefully investigating the situation.

The statement reads that the minister was shocked by reports that the Magarach trademark has been handed over to "a foreign commercial company."

Prysiazhniuk also said that some of the institute’s vineyards were allocated for construction.

Earlier the Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea opened a criminal case against the former head of the state enterprise Magarach Agricultural Company on abuse of power. According to the prosecutor’s office, the former head of the company was suspected of carrying out the illegal free of charge transfer of the Magarach trademark to his company in Estonia.

The Magarach Agricultural Company of the Magarach National Institute for Winegrowing and Winemaking is a large wine producer in Ukraine.