Monday was back to the real world. We had 3 different meetings with Ukraine Ag groups, to give us an idea of what Ukraine Ag was all about.

 

The end of communism in the 1990’s meant that all community farms were divided up into 1-2ha plots and given to the people that had worked on the community farms. So, loads and loads of small farms! Land still today can not be sold or brought, so all these tiny parcels/lots of land still exist. It can however be rented very cheaply, and thus many farms are cropping a huge acreage, without hardly owning a hectare. The farms range from the original 1ha up to the largest farm at 500,000 ha’s. Generally the system is very inefficient and makes dealing in the Ag system very difficult. However, if you can get through all the difficulties, the margins that can be made on the land is quite good. You are also however exposed to a high deal of risk, with the possibility of export bans at any time, and also the chance of change in political power, and rules such as the land ownership one, dramatically affecting your business. The political system sounds like it is far from a democratic system.

Foreign Investment is possible with many difficulties, but the locals would welcome any investment, that would help build their desperate economy.

The grain transport system is pretty bad, making the country very inefficient at being able to get grain out of the country, and again increasing the farmers risk.

 

So farming here is corn, soybeans, wheat, canola, dairy, cattle and horticulture. There wheat is all winter wheat, which is being seeded now, and will be covered in snow over the Dec-March period. The corn and soybeans are summer crops, that are being harvested at the moment. There are no GM crops allowed to be grown in Ukraine, however they believe up to 70% of the soybeans grown are actually GM, rr crops. So.......?

 

At the end of the day, we hired 3 cars for the morning to had out on the road. Mike and I went far a run through the up and down streets of the city, and got terribly lost, but was good fun.

Finished the day with a nice meal out in another typical Ukrainian restaurant, delicious!!

 

Tuesday we headed out in pouring rain, very busy traffic, and pretty dodgy maps of our destination. I was glad not to be the driver! We made it through the busy city and out onto the open road to visit Atlantic farms. Here they grew Soy, Corn, Wheat, Barley and also processed grain into stock feed in small bags and also had an oil crushing plant. They cropped 10,000ha’s, and had 3800 different land titles they were renting. The paperwork was a nightmare for them!

We were able to tour the plant, where local farmers delivered grain and it was processed into small bagged stock feed. We also got to look around the farm, and check out some soybeans being harvested. It was really great to get out into the field and have a look around.

 

I got to have a go in the drivers seat, and we drove for a couple of hours to arrive at our hotel for the night at 8.30pm. The others have headed out for dinner, but I am giving the belly a rest and staying in! Looking forward to seeing some more farms tomorrow.

photos to come, internet no that great here..