The Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Mykola Solsky on the air of the national marathon UA together spoke about three key areas of state assistance to farmers, which are now focused on the Ministry of Agrarian Policy:
1) lending under state guarantees;
2) establishment of logistical routes for the sale of agricultural products;
3) maximum simplification of all documentation.
Lending under state guarantees
It has been almost a month since the state guarantees program was launched. Under the conditions, in order to obtain a loan from a bank, for example, for UAH 50 million, it is enough to provide agrarians with 20% collateral, or in this case UAH 10 million, the rest is guaranteed by the state. The Minister stressed that the volume of lending is increasing every day. “This year, all funds are maximally refocused on lending,” he assured.
Establishing logistics routes for the sale of agricultural products
According to Mykola Solsky, this issue should be jointly resolved by the Ministry of Infrastructure, Ukrzaliznytsia and the Ministry of Agrarian Policy.
“We need to export at least 20 million tons of leftovers from last year. There will be several tens of millions of tons this year as well. There was a lot of talk at the presidential level to direct significant exports to the Baltic ports. We are increasing the volumes, in March they were measured in hundreds of tons – this figure will exceed millions of tons. It takes some time, “the Minister said.
Maximize all documentation
Today, the government is simplifying all permitting procedures within the country to speed up grain logistics. Agreements are being made with other countries on maximum transit simplification, infrastructure assistance, reorientation to Ukrainian business, etc.
“What to do farmers? Feel free to do what they used to do. It is clear that now everything is much more complicated. But farmers have long shown that they always overcome all difficult circumstances. Yes, these circumstances were not so great before, but the greater the challenge, the greater the glory, “Mykola Solskyi summed up.