What the post-war development strategy of Ukraine's agro-industrial complex entails

In Kyiv, a series of events has kicked off aimed at improving government-business relations, severely soured by security forces and taxation. Among other things, it is planned to synchronise the development concept of key sectors of the economy and their post-war recovery format. The first such conference, From Vision to Ukraine's Future: The Start of Continuous State and Business Dialogue, saw the presentation of the agro-industrial complex development strategy.

Mind was looking into how government representatives envision Ukraine's agriculture in the long-term perspective of 10+ years.

What does the forecast represent? It is a 22-slide presentation entitled Agro-Industrial Complex Development Strategy, written with the participation of external experts and posted on the website of the relevant ministry.

Essentially, it's a solid document. However, like all similar 'strategies', it has nothing to do with reality, as any industry movement is driven by business, not officials.

Are the strategy's norms mandatory? No.

Such documents are one-off and are created solely for presentation purposes. Moreover, since governments in Ukraine change regularly, there is typically no desire to implement a predecessor's document.

So how do officials envision the post-war agro-industrial complex? After the war, according to the presentation, Ukraine will be able to increase its agricultural production to 200 million tonnes within 10 years and feed 600 million people on the planet annually.

This forecast assumes that our country will regain all occupied territories and will be cultivating 32 million hectares of land. It is also expected that the domestic market will be 90% supplied with Ukrainian products.

Inside the country, 50% of the harvest will be processed, including into biofuel.

The focus will be on automation and digitisation of all agricultural processes to increase productivity and intensity of the agro-industrial complex work.

The presentation also lists investments planned to be attracted to different sectors – they are measured, on average, in hundreds of millions of dollars. In the production and processing of vegetables and fruits, it is envisaged to attract $8 billion at once, of which $6 billion will go towards building a network of greenhouses.

The source of these investments is not specified by the Cabinet of Ministers.

You can familiarise yourself with the presentation via the link.