Ukraine after victory: in 10 years we will feed 600 million people every year

After the victory in the war with Russia, Ukraine will be able to increase the production of agricultural products to 200 million tons per year in 10 years and feed 600 million people annually. This statement was made by the First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, Taras Vysotskyi, during the conference "From vision to the future of Ukraine: The beginning of a permanent dialogue between the state and business."

He emphasized that the goal of Ukraine is to provide this number of people with food products, to develop the policy of import substitution and to bring the consumption of own agricultural products to 90%. Also, Ukraine should increase competition in the processing sector and, accordingly, process 50% of the harvest, develop the biomethane market, acquire an investment portfolio of more than $50 million. In addition, Ukraine can increase production to 200 million tons of agricultural products annually in the next 10 years, but for this country must cultivate all 32 million hectares of its own agricultural land and win the war.

"These are absolutely real plans, but for this we need another starting point," the press service of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy quotes him as saying.

According to the official, currently many countries are already faced with an acute shortage of food products. We are talking about 350 million people, and at the same time the population of the planet is increasing, and the climatic conditions are not changing for the better for the agricultural sector, so the potential of Ukraine on the agro-industrial map is significant and it can grow. Also, the First Deputy Minister added that Ukraine needs to emphasize the automation of all agricultural processes in order to increase productivity and intensity of production.

By the way, the Ministry of Economy has already emphasized that, together with Ukrainian business, associations and experts, it will create more than 10 sectoral working groups to discuss and develop specific and complex measures for development in key sectors of the Ukrainian economy. During the meeting with the Ukrainian business environment, the First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine - Minister of Economy Yuliya Svyridenko emphasized that, in particular, it is planned to discuss key industries that should become a stimulus for the development of the Ukrainian economy and the development of specific proposals. These developments form the basis of the "Ukraine Plan" for the Ukraine Facility from the European Union. The development of the "Ukraine Plan" will allow the Ukrainian economy to attract EUR 50 billion in aid from the European Commission, which was announced recently during the Ukraine Recovery Conference.

"In order to receive financing under the Ukraine Facility program, we must develop a plan for the recovery, reconstruction and modernization of the country. Its phased implementation will allow us over the next 4 years not only to receive 50 billion euros of aid, but also to help attract additional investments from partners for almost the same amount - 50 billion. But for this we have to form a common vision of the country's economic development. We want to test our analytical hypotheses with business, jointly identify key sectors of the Ukrainian economy for rapid recovery, attract private capital and understand what changes business needs to realize our ambitious goals," Yuliya Svyridenko emphasized.

Currently, the "Ukraine Plan" should structure the vision of post-war reconstruction and development of Ukraine. Future reforms and sectors that need priority funding should also be listed there. According to the official, this Plan will allow in the coming years to return the GDP to the level by 2021 and to increase it by 10%.

"We already understand what these funds will go to - part will cover the budget deficit, part will go to recovery, but a large part of the funds should be directed to the private sector, the implementation of strategic investment projects, which in turn should stimulate the attraction of additional private capital," the Minister economy emphasized.

We will remind that recently, at the London conference on recovery, the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine presented a vision of comprehensive development of key sectors in which Ukraine has strategic advantages. These are energy, agriculture, green industry, critical materials industry, medicine and education, security sector, IT and entrepreneurship, construction and infrastructure. During the same event, the European Commission announced a decision to provide Ukraine with EUR 50 billion under the Ukraine Facility program for 2024-2027. Financial support will be provided in the form of grants and loans, investments and technical assistance.