Agriculture

Wednesday, September 8

The serious challenge posed by desertification and lack of proper irrigation systems. Due to desertification, the lack of investment and poor technologies, 20% of Ukraine’s arable land is degraded and unproductive. Farmers have been forced to get creative as the old and under-maintaine...

Thursday, September 2

Scope for deepening cooperation with World Bank identified. President Zelensky discussed with World Bank Group President David Malpass land reform, irrigation, and agricultural development. He reported that the World Bank is ready to support land reform, irrig...

Friday, August 27

The economy is recovering from the “coronavirus downfall, ” the Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told the Government on August 26. “For the first time in many months, the agricultural sector grew by 2.5%. There’s an active upturn is in important industries...

Ukraine has boosted exports of agricultural produce this year compared to 2020, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy reports. As of August 25, exports the 2021/2022 marketing year (MY, began on Jul. 1, 2021) reached 6.488 million tonnes, which is 127,000 tonnes more ...

After being launched on July 1, 2020, the land market reform is showing results. As of August 25, 9,072 agreements have been concluded within its framework. Transactions for 19,356 hectares of land were registered. Most land plots were sold in Poltava region (2,284 ha), Kharkiv re...

Thursday, August 19

After battling wildfires last week, Algeria is citing climate change as the reason for reaching out to Ukraine Tuesday to boost grain imports, Mykola Gorbachev, president of the Ukrainian Grain Association, writes on Facebook. “Algerian representatives stressed that due to climate change, Algeria will need to increase grain imports, and Ukra...

Nibulon, exporter of almost 10% of Ukraine’s grains, is reaching out to new markets: Mauritania, Burundi, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, Pakistan and Vietnam. Looking around the globe, Nibulon is pursuing markets in West Africa, the Middle East and South America. Last year, the breakdown of ...

Tuesday, August 17

The USDA has cut its forecast for Russia’s wheat harvest by 15%, to 72.5 million tons. By contrast, the forecast for Ukraine’s wheat harvest has been increased by 10%, to a record 33 million tons, says the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Similarly, the forecast for...

Farmers in Zaporizhia are reporting the largest early grain harvest in the region’s history – 3.2 million tons . Yields were up 15%, to 31.8 centners per hectare, according to the region’s press service. A centner is about 100 kilograms.

Thursday, August 12

Farming was the most profitable economic activity in Ukraine last year, netting $3 billion, reports the National Scientific Center Institute of Agrarian Economics. Of the nation’s farms, 83% made money, and 17% lost money. In 2019, a year of record grain harvests, profits were 13% higher ...

In a turnaround, Ukraine’s food exports to the EU are up 10% yoy, to $3.7 billion, for the first seven months of this year, reports the Ukrainian Agribusiness Club. Last year, Ukraine’s good exports to the EU dropped by 11%, compared to 2019. So far this year, Ukraine has used up five quotas for duty-free exports of food t...

The corn quota has only been 74% used due to massive shipments to China. The sugar quota has not been filled due to shortages at home. Ukraine is the fourth largest supplier of food to the EU, after the US, Brazil and the UK.

Ukraine cut exports of organic food products by 30% last year, but earned 8% more, according to a Swiss-Ukrainian study, cited by organicinfo news site. The EU bought 73% of the 332,000 tons of organic food exported last year by Ukraine. By selling 80 organic products to 40 countrie...

Since Ukraine’s new farm land market started on July 1, 5,552 sales agreements have been approved. The average price is $1,500 per hectare. “Everything is working normally, without conflicts,” Prime Minister Shmygal told the Cabinet yesterday. Until the end of 2023, sales can only between Ukrainian...

Ukraine’s top 25 agribusinesses control 9% of the nation’s cultivated farm land, according to a survey by Concorde Capital. The top five are: Kernel — 510,000 hectares; Ukrlandfarming — 475,000 hectares; MHP — 370,000; Agroprosperis — 300,000 hectares; and ...

Wednesday, August 11

“Phenomenal yields” are pushing Ukraine’s wheat harvest to an all time record this summer , the Canada-based Western Producer news site reports in an article headlined: “Ukraine shines as Black Sea wheat takes hit.” Russia’s harvest may drop 4% to 82 million tons and Kazakhstan production ...

With wheat threshed from three quarters of the planted area, Ukrainian wheat farmers are seeing a 14% yoy jump in yields: 4.55 tons / hectare, compared to 3.98 t / ha last year. In Khmelnytskyi and Volyn regions, yields are hitting 6.06 t / ha. Thanks to the same favorable weather, barley yields are up 10% compared to la...

Concorde Capital’s agricultural expert Andriy Perederey writes: “Favorable weather this season is pushing grain yields higher…agriculture will be among the key drivers of Ukraine’s GDP growth this year.”

Underlining Ukraine’s role as a world food power, exports of all grains are expected to hit 56 million tons, from a record harvest of 75.8 million tons, the Agrarian Policy and Food Ministry predicted on Monday. During the current 2021-2022 market ye...

Cargill, the US food giant, has acquired 51% ownership in Neptune Grain Terminal in Pivdennyi, Ukraine’s busiest Black Sea port. Designed to handle 5 million tons of grain a year, the terminal berth has a 16-meter water depth. Minority owner Andriy Stavnitser, of M.V. Cargo LLC, s...

Monday, July 26

Harvests of wheat, barley and peas are going well. With high yields, Ukrainian farmers have harvested 14 million tons from 22% of the forecast area. To date, about half of the nation’s winter barley and peas crops have been harvested. This does not in...

Ukraine kept its position as the fourth largest source of food imports for the EU, after Brazil, the US and the UK during the first four months of this year. Ukraine’s food exports to the EU actually dropped by 19% yoy, according to the European Commission’s report “Monitoring EU Agri-Food Trade: Developments Janu...

Wednesday, July 21

Climate change means that agricultural zones are shifting north “by hundreds of kilometers,” Agriculture Minister Roman Leshchenko said speaking at a farming forum in Kyiv yesterday. “The temperature has risen by more than 1 degree Celsius in 10 years — this has a very serious impact on...

Tuesday, July 20

Germany’s Labor Ministry is speaking with its Ukraine counterparts about allowing Ukrainians to do seasonal farm work . AT present, there are only 20,000 international workers in Germany which are classed as ‘holiday workers.’ The country has signed a pilot agreement with Georgia and Ukraine to allow workers to enter...

Friday, July 9

In its first week, Ukraine’s farmland market has seen 322 transactions , Prime Minister Shmygal advised the Ukraine Reform Conference in Vilnius yesterday. “Myths about the mass sale of land and the export of Ukrainian black soil remain just myths,” he said. Currently li...

Thursday, July 8

Vowing a “record increase in tariffs,” Infrastructure Minister Alexander Kubrakov plans to raise iron and coal rail freight rates to those of grains. For years, farmers have complained that Ukrzaliznytsia grain rates subsidize below market freight rates for iron, coal, cement, and fertilizer producers. Across the board, all rates would increase by ...

Wednesday, July 7

The FAO’s global food price index has increased by 40% yoy, reaching the highest level in a decade , The Washington Post reports in a story headlined: “Surging global food prices put staple meals out of reach, from Nigerian jollof rice to Russian pasta and Argentine steak.” “A variety of factors ar...

After a 21% drop in grain exports last year, Ukraine now expects a 25% rebound in the grain exports for the marketing year that started last week. With exports expected to reach 56 million tons over the coming year, Ukraine will return to the record year of 2019/2020, when 56.7 million tons were exp...

Last summer’s drought, provoked declines of Ukraine’s top three grain exports: corn, down 24%, to 23 million tons; wheat, down 19% to 16.4 million tons; barley, down 17%, to 4.2 million tons. Food is Ukraine’s top export.

Friday, July 2

“It will help Ukraine integrate its power system with the European power grid, ” said Arup Banerji, World Bank Regional Director. “The project also helps Ukraine align with the European Green Deal.” With an installed capacity of 5.7 gigawatts, Ukrhydroenergo operates eight hydro...

In a heat wave that could affect grain harvests, 10 temperature records were set in Kyiv in June . The average monthly air temperature in Kyiv city in June was 21.3 °C. This is 1.8 °C above the norm for June.

Thursday, July 1

From today, Ukrainians can sell their farmland, a right largely lost after the communist takeover one century ago. “Ukrainians will become the real masters of their land, because they will be able not only to own it, but also to dispose of it freely,” Prime Minister Shmygal wrote yesterday on Telegram. “There is n...

The market starts with limits – sales are only permitted between Ukrainians for areas less than 100 hectares. The Economy Ministry estimates that the average price of a hectare will be around $2,000. On January 1, 2024, the market will expand to Ukrainian-owned companies and the size limit will increase to 10...

From the start, farmers cultivating up to 500 hectares will be eligible for bank loans sponsored by a new fund, the Partial Credit Guarantee Fund for Agriculture. When farmland goes up for sale, tenants have the first right of refusal to buy. Landlords must notify tenants in writing of ...

Dobrozem, an online farmland sales platform and consultancy, was launched today, announced the founders Alex Lissitsa, General Director of IMK agricultural holding, Dmytro Dubilet, a former executive at Monobank, the online bank. “The main idea of Dobrozem is to give people the op...

The Rada passed yesterday in first reading a bill that would mandate that bioethanol’s compose 5% of gasoline sold in Ukraine by next May . In Brazil, most bioethanol’s come from sugar cane. In the US, they come from corn.

Ukraine should not become a ‘Corn Republic,’ but should develop food processing and animal husbandry, says Gennadiy Bobov, owner of Panda, a farming group based in Kyiv region. “The simple sale of land will not lead to positive results and economic growth,” he said last week. “Land reform should benef...

Good rains and expanded cultivation are expected to increase Ukraine’s wheat harvests by 21% yoy during the new July-June marketing year, forecasts Agritel, the consulting arm of Argus Media. The latest forecast is for 30.5 million tons, breaking the record set in 2019-2020.

China’s trade war with Australia could lead to a doubling and tripling of Ukraine’s grain exports to China, Mykola Gorbachov, President of the Ukrainian Grain Association, tells Argus Media after signing a binational deal in June. This year, Ukraine has nearly tripled its barley exports to China. Ukraine no...

To turn around Ukraine’s declining dairy production, the government should extend $200 million a year in support to the sector, Vadym Chaharovsky, head of Ukraine’s Union of Dairy Enterprises, told reporters on Tuesday. By contrast, he said, the EU’s dairy subsidies amount to €10 billion a year. Ukraine also should stop import...

New markets opened this year for Ukraine’s dairy exports: Argentina, Japan, Kuwait, Lebanon, and Libya. Last year, Ukraine doubled imports of dairy products, to $304 million, while seeing exports fall by 17%, to $226.6 million.

This year, Ukraine’s milk production continued its steady fall, dropping by 5.2% through April, compared to the same first four months of 2020. Of the 2.52 million tons, dairy production was stable at 902,000 tons, but household production fell by 7.6%, to 1.6 million tons.

Wednesday, June 23

Well-timed rains are pushing this year’s harvest to a record 100 million tons of grains, oilseeds and beans, Nikolay Gorbachov, president of the Ukrainian Grain Association predicted at the recent International Grains Council’s Grain Conference. “What I can tell you about Ukraine is the conditions are just p...

Gorbachov’s predictions for this year’s harvests: corn – 37 million tons, up 22%; wheat – 30 million tons, up 20%; sunflower seeds – 16.5 million tons, up 28%; and canola – 2.5 million tons, unchanged. The headline on the farming news site from Weste...

Moving a bumper harvest to the sea ports will not be a problem , says Gorbachov. Ukraine now has 28,000 rail hopper cars, almost triple the 10,000 of three years ago. “We have no more deficit of these hoppers, and we can move grain easily to the ports,” he said. ...

With the grain marketing year ending next week, Ukraine’s exports in tons are down by 22% yoy, to 43.4 million tons. But with global food prices up 40% yoy, Ukraine’s grain exports in dollars are expected to be unchanged from one year ago. Total grain production for the marketing year, ending J...

The start of a limited farmland market on July 1 should boost Ukrainian harvest yields , Bloomberg reports in a story: Ukraine will introduce long-awaited land reforms next month just as food prices rise to the highest in almost a decade. Harvest yields for corn, Ukraine’s largest crop,...

The farmland market is designed to be transparent, Agriculture Minister Roman Leshchenko writes in an Atlantic Council essay: “Land reform can make Ukraine an agricultural superpower.” “Once Ukraine’s land market opens, all transactions will be tracked to record buyers and sellers, along with the price and the source of paym...

Wednesday, June 16

Helping to cut food inflation, no area in Ukraine is threatened by drought this summer, Tetyana Adamenko, head of the agro weather department of Ukraine’s Hydrometeorological Center, told Interfax-Ukraine yesterday. “The situation is very good, the soil is an excellent source of moisture...

Thursday, June 10

Ukraine’s exports to the EU have increased by more than one third — or $2.7 billion — so far this year , Prime Minister Shmygal announced yesterday at a Cabinet meeting. Growth picked up speed from a 12% increase registered for January-March, compared to the same period last year, In 2020, 41% of Ukrai...