Kakhovka - Marsha's town

We headed off south towards Odessa for a 450km drive to our next stop. I started driving and it was pretty crazy. No overtaking lanes, trucks galore, and many crazy drivers. There was a lot of overtaking to be done, and it was a bit hairy. Swifty took over and got the more difficult leg in the dark. It was a really crazy trip and we got in about 9.30pm, very exhausted. The town we were staying in was called ‘Kakhova’ and it was the town that Marsha our translator lived in. It is a beautiful city.

Linda and our translator Marsha, singing Abba in the back of the car.

6 of us started the day with a jog along the river. It is a massive river‘Denepra’. I met my match running with Irish, he can really run, and I only just managed to keep up. Our first visit was to Chumak – Johan Boden. He and his business partner started from scratch a tomato processing plant, and have built their business up to a huge manufacturing plant. He was so great to listen to, a really clever, enthusiastic man.

Chumak is the old name for the guys that would deliver salt in the old days to preserve food, so a good name for tomato processing plant. Because of the massive river, there is so much potential for horticulture, and loads of tomies produced here.

Once they had built the Chumak business up, Johan decided that it was better to take a step back from the business and let the managers who were there take the reins. Not because he had had enough, but more he thought he needed to let the managers take hold of the business so that they would reach there full potential. He believes that people should not get to emotional attached to their business, and spoke of the fact that business is important but there are things in life that are far more important.

So he wasn’t ready to retire, so sits down with his business partner, share a bottle of whiskey, and come up with 2 business ideas, for a fresh food business ‘green team’ and also a wind turbine plant. Both of which he has started and running successfully. Goes to show brainstorming and writing down your opportunities can get you a long way. He commented that when you did this brainstorming in developed countries the list was short, and the investment costs and barriers many, but here in the Ukraine, the list long and the costs few.

We were able to look round the tomy processing and the green team plant. The infrastructure and technology was very impressive. They are processing and packaging onions, carrots, cabbages, garlic etc etc.

You could learn so much from a man like Johan, but I guess one of the main things (and one of the main things I have learnt from the Ukraine), is don’t look at the obstacles, just look at the big picture. If you want to do something, just go out there and do it and you will work out a way to get it done.

We visited Vitali, a local producer, he had expanded his farm to 600 ha’s and grew a variety of horticulture crops. The irrigation here is readily accessible and relatively cheap, and with such good soils, they can get some very good yields. In the 1950’s the government had built 400km’s of irrigation channels off the Dniepro river, making the water accessible to many farms. He had identified his opportunities and was well and truly making the most of them. He did not aim to expand further, but rather improve what he was doing now!

We went for dinner at this beautiful restaurant, the food was fantastic, but Vitali our host, was very keen on the whiskey, so instead of a nightcap, we started a meal with a shot of Irish whiskey. The night went from there, and 5litres of Irish whiskey later, we hit a ten pin bowling centre. It was a hilarious and fun night, and the language barrier is soon broken when you start singing and dancing.

Heading out of Kakhovka, we visited 2 more farms, growing a variety of different things. Stone fruit, grapes, strawberries and also soy and corn crops. We then drove for 4 hours to Odessa. Odessa on the black sea, is the major port for getting exports out of Ukraine. It can freeze up in the winter, so they have to get icebreakers in to break it up. If they want to have an export ban without actually putting a ban on, then they just don’t get the icebreakers in.

We got dressed up rather fancy, and headed out to the Opera. A first for me, the Opera house was beautiful, and the orchestra music fantastic, but as for the singing, definitely not my favourite. I do admire their ability though. We made it to intermission, then headed out for dinner, one last Ukrainian meal. It was Irish’s last night with us, as he was only doing half of the programme, so we headed out to find a Karaoke bar. Unbelievably there was one only a block away, and we had a great night singing and dancing. Robyn and Irish turn out to be fantastic singers, and even the Ukranians were dancing to their songs.
Today we head to Istanbul, Turkey

 

Onions being unloaded and sorted at the 'green team' factory

Marsha and Mike, checking a paddock of carrots

 

One of the many irrigation channels that were built in the 50's

Giant coolrooms, that the fresh vegies are stored in.

Stu checking out some vineyards, the very cold winter had led to a lot of vines to die this season

Mike showing off the display of tomato processing products. Before they start manufacturing a product, they buy it in from somewhere else and see if it if going to sell, then if it does they start to produce it themselves. Taking away a lot of risk