I think you will find that the land is leased for 50 years from Ukrainian owners as it is still illegal for non-nationals and foreign entities (companies) to own Ukrainian farmland. The land they are taking over is in the east of the country, several hundred miles from where I'm settling. To a degree it makes sense for Ukraine to do this where they have poor demographics with many old people and their population is falling and they need much more money for investment in modernization.
How much productivity will rise in the agricultural sector from this will be worth watching as there has been massive mechanisation in the last few years. As an example the local collective in the area I'm moving to used to employ 1000's where it has about 25,000ha of land, but now has about 10 tractor drivers including my brother-in-law. He works very long hours from March to October.
What is going to be much more interesting and far reaching is the signing of an EU-Ukraine free trade agreement in November, where Ukraine will have EFA status the same as Switzerland and Norway. This is going to in the short term make the Ukraine industry much more vulnerable to imports, but in the short, medium and long term create massive opportunities for entrepreneurs in Ukraine. It will take about 12 months before it has been ratified by all EU countries, but there will then the free movement of goods between the EU and Ukraine. This has taken over 5 years to negotiate, so it has been a long drawn out process, Russia is not happy where they are trying to get the Ukraine to join their customs union and the two are mutually exclusive.
Another area that has been very problematic for Ukraine is where they are Russia's biggest gas importer. Russia has a history of bullying and have been regularly pushing up the price to the point that the Ukraine is opening old gas fields with new technology and with this plus investment in fracking, expects to be self-sufficient in 2 to 3 years.
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Topic: One for Rods (Read 1372 times)