The history of the establishment of the Nizhynsky Cannery

For most Ukrainians, the city of Nizhyn is associated with cucumbers. This is not surprising, because right here they began to be grown and salted since the 17th century. The Nizhynsky Cannery became the heir to the local tradition of cooking and canning.

According to one of the legends, the tradition of salting and canning cucumbers in Nizhyn was started by Greeks who settled in the city in the middle of the 17th century, and it was then that Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky signed a document that allowed them self-government and exempted them from paying taxes. In this way, the Greeks quickly settled, engaged in trade and agriculture.
In the floodplain of the Oster River, they grew cucumbers, and therefore salted them according to their special recipe. Their pickles proved to be a great snack and became popular in the county.

In the 1840s, only 20 000 small barrels of pickles were produced in Nizhyn.
However, two events became fateful for the Nizhyn cucumber. In 1868, a railway station started operating in Nizhyn, and this caused a real revolution in the geography of trade. And in 1881, the excise tax on salt, an ingredient for making brine, was abolished, which led to a significant drop in its prices and availability.
In this way, the production of Nizhyn pickles takes on an incredible rise. Thus, in 1897, only 4 enterprises worked in Nizhyn. Their production volume reached 100 wagons (by the way, one wagon contains 100 barrels). Already in 1913, more than 500 wagons of products were exported from Nizhyn for sale. More than 10 factories worked. The largest enterprises were Abram Goldin (200 wagons) and Maria Moskalenko (100 wagons).

Відеоматеріали з історії заводу можна переглянути тут:
https://fb.watch/he_FwvF27x/

Nizhyn cucumber was in great demand both on domestic and foreign markets. For example, Abram Goldin exported the main part of pickles and gherkins to France, Germany and Finland. His business prospered until the beginning of the First World War.
The war actually destroyed the Nizhyn cucumber business. Stable production of industrial volumes of cucumber was revived only in 1924, when a salting station of the Nizhyn Agricultural Union was opened in the premises of Abram Goldin’s former enterprise. Since 1927, the salting station was reorganized into a separate enterprise, which later received the modern name “Nizhynsky Cannery”.

And this year, 2022, the Nizhinsky Cannery is celebrating its 95th anniversary.