In January-October 2021, the country imported more than 9.2 thsd tonnes of seeds of the main crops from France at the general sum of 79.4 mln USD. The import increased by 12% y/y in volume terms and by 25% y/y in monetary terms. France remains the leading supplier of seeds to Ukraine.
Source: State Customs Service of Ukraine
The processing of agricultural crops using unmanned aerial vehicles is the most promising direction in the Ukrainian agricultural machinery industry, the Astarta agricultural holding has begun experimental implementation of this type of aviation this year, CEO of AgriChain, which is part of Astarta, Natalia Bohacheva has said. According to her, drones are most effective in assessing the state of crops and promptly responding to emerging risks. In addition, this aircraft technology allows pre-harvest drying of grain crops with greater efficiency than using wheeled vehicles. This is especially pronounced during desiccation of rapeseed, which can be significantly damaged by the bottom of the vehicles processing it. AgriChain is a product company that develops solutions for the AgTech market, founded in 2016 by the Astarta agricultural holding.
Source: press release of AgriChain
The Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food has signed an agreement with Lindsay (USA), a large international company, on the production of irrigation equipment and the creation of an industrial cluster in Ukraine to localize some of the products for irrigation.
Source: Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food
Seed Corp, the Ukrainian division of the American company Remington Seeds, launched the first stage of a corn seed production plant in the village of Helmiaziv (Cherkasy region), a project worth USD 30 million. The construction of the first stage of production lasted 3.5 months. To provide the plant with raw materials, Seed Corp uses 3,960 hectares of irrigated land, and the company also purchased more than 20 units of special equipment for crop production.
Source: Interfax
The Koudijs Group of Companies (Koudijs, the Netherlands, a subsidiary of the Dutch Royal De Heus) has launched a plant for manufacturing mineral and vitamin supplements for agricultural animals in the village of Khylchytsi (Lviv region) with an estimated production capacity of 1,500 tonnes of finished products per month. Investments in the project amounted to EUR 7.8 million. The new plant in Ukraine is part of the Koudijs group of companies – an international producer of animal feed, concentrates and premixes, which has more than 90 plants in 60 countries of the world.
Source: Ministry of Agricultural Policy and Food
In the first half of the year, the share of mowers produced in Ukraine was 7.2% in the Ukrainian market of this equipment, while in 2017 it was 10 times higher – 71.6%. This statistics does not take into account data on mowers imported from China, given which the decrease in the share of Ukrainian equipment in the market may turn out to be even more significant. Production of tractor, mounted and trailed mowers in Ukraine decreased 83.3% over 2017-2020 – from 3,590 items to 600 items, while their imports (excluding imports from China) tripled – from 1,430 items to 4,240 items, the current trend threatens to completely oust this domestic equipment from the Ukrainian market.
Source: Institute of Agrarian Economics
Shanghai is developing a number of projects in the agro-industrial sector in Ukraine for a total of USD 17 million. „Now we have six direct investment projects of Shanghai in Ukraine worth USD 17 million, related to agriculture, forestry, livestock and fisheries. The total volume of contracts that Shanghai concludes in Ukraine reaches USD 897 million, of which USD 278 million are related to telecommunications, development and gas production, drilling projects,” Deputy Director of Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce Zhu Yi she said. According to her, the trade turnover between Shanghai and Ukraine in 2020 amounted to CNY 4.6 billion.
Source: Interfax
Ukraine applied to the United States for a loan of USD 4 billion for the period 2022-2030 for the implementation of the project to restore the engineering infrastructure of irrigation systems and the development of irrigated agriculture in Ukraine. The Ministry of Agrarian Policy is negotiating with companies from Israel, the US, France and China regarding public-private cooperation in the reconstruction of irrigation systems in the southern regions of Ukraine.
Source: Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine
USAID Agriculture Growing Rural Opportunities (USAID Agro) and the National Association of Agricultural Advisory Services of Ukraine will create the online resource center “Best agricultural practices for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSME)” to provide its participants with knowledge about modern agricultural technologies in a number of agricultural sectors. The project will become a communication platform where successful farmers will share their achievements with their potential followers. State and local authorities, public organizations, associations, scientific organizations and agricultural journalists are invited to participate in the project too.
Source: Interfax
Among European soybean producing countries, only Ukraine can reach the annual production of 6 mln tonnes, declared Oksana Prosolenko, Executive Director, Regional Director of Eastern Europe at Donau Soja Association. She noted that Russia has become the largest soybean producers in Europe this year, displacing Ukraine. Russia raise soybean production only by expanding the area. It is important to note that the yield of soybean is lower in Russia compered to Ukraine. If Ukrainian producers can increase the efficiency of soybean cultivation using higher yielding varieties, irrigation, they will be able to increase production under the current climatic conditions, the expert said.
Source: Donau Soja Association
