From: lessgovt@gmail.com   
      
   Ukraine Farms Attract Money and Help From Allies, Top Food Companies   
   By Patrick Thomas and Alistair MacDonald, April 4, 2023, WSJ   
   Foreign countries and some of the world’s largest agriculture companies are   
   donating or lending hundreds of millions of dollars to Ukrainian farmers,   
   marking an early push by Kyiv’s allies to rebuild the country even as the   
   war shows little sign of    
   ending soon.     
      
   Ukraine’s farming industry has been hit hard by Russia’s invasion.   
   Equipment has been destroyed, land has been expropriated and mined and export   
   routes choked off. Financing is hard to come by, and some of the industry’s   
   most basic imports, such as    
   fertilizer, are in short supply.    
      
   In response, Western nations and companies are pouring in aid. For Western   
   allies, the funding represents a small down payment on what experts think will   
   be hundreds of billions of dollars worth of reconstruction aid required over   
   years.    
      
   For many Western companies, the help could bolster crucial partners struggling   
   during the war. It also could preserve or strengthen these companies’   
   reputations with local farmers and their position in the country, which is an   
   important agricultural    
   exporter, analysts said.    
      
   The government and commercial assistance “will give a possibility for   
   Ukraine to move in the correct direction,” said Mykola Solskyi, Ukraine’s   
   minister of agrarian policy and food. He said for the sector to fully recover   
   it will need the    
   equivalent of a farming Marshall Plan, a reference to the aid program that   
   helped rebuild Europe after World War II.   
      
   Any postwar reconstruction of Ukraine is set to be expensive. An assessment in   
   March by the World Bank, European Commission and others estimated the cost of   
   reconstruction at around $411 billion based on damage over the course of a   
   year beginning with    
   the start of the invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.     
      
   Before the war, agriculture was responsible for 10% of the country’s gross   
   domestic product, 40% of its exports and 14% of its jobs. The sector also has   
   significant international importance, given that it produces a large share of   
   the world’s grains    
   and sunflower oil exports. When Russia invaded, prices for corn, wheat and   
   sunflower oil rose, adding to global inflation.   
      
   Seed giants such as Bayer AG and Corteva Inc. say they plan to invest in the   
   country over the next decade to help rebuild Ukraine’s agricultural system.   
   Bayer has said it was investing some $38 million in a seed plant in the   
   country. Corteva said it    
   intended to increase corn-seed production in the region by 30% over the next   
   five years.   
      
   The seed companies also have stepped in to help supply farmers with products   
   for this year’s harvest. Bayer said it provided equipment to remove mines   
   from farmers’ fields, and that it has donated about 40,000 bags of corn and   
   vegetable seed, worth    
   about $2 million.    
      
   Grain merchants including Cargill Inc., Archer Daniels Midland Co. and Bunge   
   Ltd. have said they intended to keep shipping crops from the country. Buying   
   farmers’ grain and exporting it is a way to get them cash for their next   
   crop, said Gary McGuigan,    
   head of global trade at ADM.   
      
   Some of the grain companies have said they hoped to expand their operations   
   and infrastructure in the region when stability returns.    
      
   “Our focus is, let’s make sure that the world gets fed and that these   
   products get to where they’re needed and that the Ukrainian farmers are able   
   to get cash for their products,” said Cargill’s chairman, Dave MacLennan.   
   “We’re going to    
   continue to do business in the Ukraine as long as we can.”    
      
   Pesticide and crop-seed maker Syngenta Group began buying farmers’ grain and   
   transporting it to ports to give farmers the cash needed to buy the   
   company’s supplies, according to people familiar with the matter. Buying and   
   selling grain from farmers    
   is a departure from Syngenta’s usual business of supplying farmers but part   
   of its plan to keep the agriculture sector moving.   
      
   Mr. Solskyi, the food minister, said that his department was regularly in   
   contact with international grain-trading houses with meetings at least once   
   every two weeks, where issues such as logistics and taxes are discussed with   
   these companies’ local    
   chief executives.     
      
   Farmers say they have a long list of needs, including chemicals and   
   fertilizers, but they say they also need funding. With increased costs such on   
   logistics and fuel, many farmers saw little in the way of profit over the last   
   season. This has stripped    
   them of the capital needed to fund planting for this season.   
      
   Agriculture executives say they expect this year’s harvest in Ukraine to be   
   down roughly 30% from a typical year. Ukrainian officials have said they   
   expected its farmers to harvest up to 15% less grain this year than last.    
      
   “What is of paramount importance is to improve the liquidity of Ukrainian   
   farmers, the liquidity is very low,” Mr. Solskyi said.   
      
   Foreign banks, including Credit Agricole SA of France and Austria’s   
   Raiffeisen Bank International AG have taken part in a government plan that has   
   lent more than 5,000 farmers up to 90 million hryvnias, about $2.43 million.   
      
   Kees Huizinga, who farms wheat and other crops and raises livestock in central   
   Ukraine, took out a loan with Raiffeisen and a Greek bank. “Farmers just   
   don’t have enough money,” he said.   
      
   Among countries providing aid, Japan distributed sunflower and corn seeds to   
   around 400 smallholder farmers in Kharkiv. Canada spent $50 million on   
   building temporary grain storage, after Russia blocked Black Sea ports where   
   Ukrainian produce is    
   typically left for export, and sponsored a dairy processing plant in Western   
   Ukraine.   
      
   The EU has provided €50 million, or about $54 million, in funding for   
   farmers to buy seeds and other supplies while suspending tariffs and quotas   
   for agricultural products coming into the trading bloc.   
      
   The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has provided more than   
   €240 million to the country’s agribusiness sector, which includes all   
   parts of the farming and supply chain, and guarantees part of €130 million   
   euros worth of lending to    
   the industry from commercial banks. The EBRD has committed to putting €3   
   billion into Ukraine.   
      
   https://www.wsj.com/articles/ukraine-farms-attract-money-and-hel   
   -from-allies-top-food-companies-61c65dd2   
      
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