On February 12, 2015 the “Agri & Food Export Forum" was held at the Fairmont Grand Hotel Kyiv under the patronage of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, and supported by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, that brought together key players in the agribusiness sector to refresh the effective interaction between all professionals in the market, as well as between the business and the government.
“Thanks to the “Agri & Food Export Forum” international
investors obtained an opportunity to investigate agricultural market of Ukraine
and to evaluate their perspectives and investment attractiveness. It is
important that all participants in the forum sought to implement a long-term
strategy for the development of their business processes, find new markets and
partners”, – said the Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of
Ukraine Oleksiy Pavlenko.
Deputy Minister on European
Integration of the Ministry of
Agrarian Policy and Food
of Ukraine Vladyslava Rutytska
mentioned:
“In our turn, we want to connect agricultural producers for discussing practical solutions on accessing the EU
markets. Using
the example of the
successful experience of the leading Ukrainian companies, we would like to show and
teach local farmers how to enter the European markets. In particular, this
applies to small and medium-sized producers. Today they need support from the government,
financial institutions, also
in terms of moving to the new standards, of obtaining certification
and determining
new markets. We also need to understand that today instead of exporting raw
materials, Ukrainian producers should focus on products with high added value.”
Among the
Forum speakers were Gocha Tsopurashvili,
Deputy Minister of Agriculture of Georgia, Şevki Acuner, EBRD,
Jeffrey R. Payett, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Nicolas Verlet, European Commission, Adam Mycyk, Dentons, Elena
Voloshyna, IFC, Dominique Menu, Bank
BNP Paribas, Jean-Jacques Herve,
Credit Agricole Bank, Marion Hoenike, European
Investment Bank, Vasile Tofan,
Purcari Wines, Sergey Lyamets,
Economic Pravda and many others.
“Limited access to financing is a major problem
for the Ukrainian agricultural producers in the current year. For IFC supporting
of agribusiness across the whole chain of production is the main focus of our
work in Ukraine. Just last year, we invested more than $ 300 million in
agribusiness projects. We have extended the offer of financial products, we
continue to work on the implementation of agricultural warrants. We will
continue to support Ukrainian manufacturers, and we also strive to bring other
investors in the sector”, – said the head of IFC in
Ukraine Elena Voloshyna.
The forum was
attended by more than 300 companies, including Case IH, Titan Machinery, Industrial
Milk Company, John Deere, Kernel, Vitmark, Mondelez Ukraine, AgroGeneration,
Grain Alliance, Agrokultura, Kyiv-Atlantic Ukraine and others.
The Forum was
held under the patronage of the Ministry of
Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine. Organizer – A7 CONFERENCES.
General Partner – Case IH, Institutional
Partner – EBRD, Exclusive Legal
Partner – Dentons, Telecommunications Partner
– Kyivstar, Partners – Western NIS
Enterprise Fund and Coca-Cola. First National TV Channel and Persha Shpalta – General TV Partners, 5th Channel – TV Partner, Economichna Pravda – General Media Partner, Interfax-Ukraine – General Informational Partner,
Latifundist.com – Internet Partner.
Among the media partners: KyivPost, Apostrophe, FinMaidan,
UJBL, AgroNews,
Centre of transport strategies, Financial Director, MinFin, Platfor.ma,
ProRetail.info. Informational Partner
– European Business Association in Ukraine.
The event was supported by ASTP, VAR, UGA,
Edinburgh Business School in Eastern Europe,
the Kyiv-Mohyla Business School, Business School MIM-Kyiv, Kyiv School of Economics and the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine.
For those who could not attend the Forum the full record
of the event is availavle at the web-site: a7conf.com/agro
For further
information, please contact Lidiya Markova, tel. +38 044 232 77
39, +38 066 165 77 87, [email protected]
