Ukraine can enter the top 5 EU-economies

The economy of post-war Ukraine, with sufficient investment and support, can become one of the largest in the EU. This is the opinion of the president of the Canadian-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce, Zenon Potichny.

"Ukraine is, in fact, a small Canada on the eastern flank of Europe, which with proper supervision and strategic foreign investment can reach the potential of one of the five largest economies of the EU," said Potichniy.

He also drew attention to the fact that Ukraine has "substantial reserves of natural resources, opportunities for the extractive industry, reserves of oil and natural gas, large areas of fertile land, national water resources, tourism potential both in the mountains and on the sea coast, and a reasonable and dedicated workforce."

In addition, currently, despite Russian aggression, according to data for November 2023, Ukraine remains in the third position among the largest suppliers of agricultural products to the EU. It is inferior only to Brazil and Great Britain. This is stated in the report of the European Commission on agricultural trade as of November of this year.

"Imports to the EU increased to a monthly rate of 5% in August 2023, and reached €12.5 billion, which is 15 percent less than the level of August 2022. Along with this, total imports in the period from January to August 2023 reached €107.4 billion, which showed only a slight decrease compared to the same period in 2022 (-3%, or - €3 billion)... To the "top" of the countries of origin imports for the EU in the period from January to August 2023 include three countries - Brazil, Great Britain and Ukraine," the message reads.

The report notes that Ukraine was in third place in terms of the volume of agricultural products supplied to the EU with an absolute figure of €8 billion since January of this year. The total volume of European imports from Ukraine from January to August remained higher by 23 percent, or 1.5 billion, compared to the same period in 2022. At the same time, since June of this year, the monthly indicators of the supply of agricultural products from Ukraine have somewhat slowed down.

According to the indicators of European exports, Ukraine occupies the 14th position among the most important consumers of European agricultural products, with an indicator of € 2.5 billion in the period from January to August 2023. Last year, during the same period, Ukraine imported €1.8 billion worth of agricultural products from the EU, so in absolute terms, the increase by this indicator amounted to €385 million, or 21 percent.