The government and farmers are looking for new markets for the domestic producer

Currently, one of the important priorities of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy is the opening of new markets for domestic agricultural products. Currently, as the Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Vitaly Koval noted in an interview with "Ukrainian Radio", domestic agricultural exports are already at the pre-war level. And this is despite the loss of arable land and mined fields in the frontline territories. Such a situation testifies to the power of the Ukrainian agricultural industry and the need to find new markets for the sale of products. In fact, even during a large-scale war, Ukraine did not lose in terms of value and, on average, foreign exchange earnings from agricultural exports amount to $22 billion every year.

Therefore, the government is currently actively working with agricultural associations to enter new markets. For example, today we already know about interest from Malaysia, Indonesia and Bangladesh. But it is important that business, through specialized associations, talk about the directions that they see as the perspective of new markets. After all, any market must be conquered, and this is a component of state policy - to sell your products on foreign markets. Therefore, it must be of high quality, meet the most demanding standards.

In particular, as an example, it can be noted that currently Ukraine is actively working on expanding the range of exports of domestic plant and animal products to China. The issue concerns peas, wheat flour, pet food, beef, corn, poultry and wild-caught aquatic products.

It is worth noting that the processing industry and its export potential are currently very important for the formation of stability and adaptability of the Ukrainian economy in war conditions and for attracting investments for post-war reconstruction. If we analyze the export of raw materials from Ukraine, it is agricultural raw materials that occupy one of the leading places, and currently Ukraine's goal is that in the near future all this volume will be processed by domestic enterprises. And the import supply should not go to raw materials, but to quality products with added value. This will make it possible to increase the export value of the agricultural sector from 3 to 10 times, depending on the product category, and both the state and producers will benefit from this. In this regard, the government believes that agro-processing has a future and large investments - whoever of the entrepreneurs will have time to enter the process now, taking into account the accession to the EU, will have a great advantage in the future. It is already known that within the next 5 years the State Food and Consumer Service plans to open another 240 new markets for Ukrainian agricultural products. After all, as of today, Ukraine has the right of access to the export of products in 340 trade areas of agricultural products. Currently, the Ukrainian side works with more than 60 countries on products of plant and animal origin. In parallel, the process of Ukraine's integration into the EU continues, and if we take chapter 12 on food safety, veterinary and phytosanitary policy, it alone accounts for 19% of the volume of requirements that Ukraine faces in general. And the implementation of EU requirements for Ukraine is one of the priorities. However, at the same time, it is important for the country and manufacturers to defend the interests of Ukrainian business. After all, since the beginning of the year, according to preliminary data, the export of goods has reached almost $34.6 billion, and this is a very substantial amount of profit for the country during the war. Ukrainian producers mostly exported goods to Poland, Germany, Spain, Italy and Turkey. In October alone, Ukraine exported $2.38 billion worth of goods to EU countries (15.8% more than in September). In addition, if we talk about agricultural production, 2.57 million tons of grain were shipped only in October of this year.

In fact, in 2025, Ukraine needs to ensure quota-free and duty-free export of agricultural products to the countries of the European Union. After all, currently Ukrainian carriers do not need any licenses for freight transportation to the EU. Therefore, it is a priority problem to be solved. In this regard, the government of Ukraine noted that as a result of the agreements reached with the European Union, it was possible to solve a number of logistical problems, in particular, the sea and Danube transport corridors, which contribute to the smooth movement of goods, have been restored.