Ukraine, Hungary to create border hub to process Ukrainian agricultural products

MOSCOW. Oct 14 (Interfax) - Ukraine and Hungary are considering setting up a joint agricultural hub on their border to process, transship and package products exported from Ukraine, Ukrainian Agrarian Policy and Food Minister Vitaly Koval said after a meeting with Hungary's Agriculture Minister Istvan Nagy on Friday.

The parties began reviewing a roadmap for putting this project into practice, Ukrainian media said, citing the press service for the Agrarian Policy and Food Ministry. In particular, Koval said that it is important to develop long-term cooperation with this neighbor country.

"Strong horizontal ties need to be established between Ukrainian and Hungarian farmers and associations in order to promote mutual trust. Right now, our countries ought to develop joint advanced processing and jointly find new markets," the press service quoted Koval as saying.

"We see eye-to-eye on a great deal of things. We will continue to enhance our cooperation with the Hungarian side. [...] Our objective is to work out algorithms that will enable the economy of both countries to develop and grow further," Koval said, thanking his Hungarian counterpart for his openness and desire to help.

Nagy, for his part, supported the idea of developing horizontal ties between Ukrainian and Hungarian farmers.