Ukraine's annual harvest may reach 130 mln-150 mln tonnes by end of decade - Kernel company CEO

MOSCOW. Nov 18 (Interfax) - The crisis will lead to the reduction of Ukraine's harvest in 2023 to 65 million tonnes, which is 35% less than the figures in 2021, when Ukraine gathered more than 100 million tonnes of agricultural crops.

At the same time, within two or three years after the end of the crisis, it will be possible to again bring the harvest to the level of 100 million tonnes a year and to reach 130 million-150 million tonnes a year within the subsequent five years, Ukrainian media quoted Yevgeny Osipov, general director of the Kernel company, Ukraine's leading producer and supplier of agricultural products, as saying at the Kiev International Economic Forum on Thursday.

"Ukraine can produce 130 million-150 million tonnes of harvest a year. The figure of 100 million, which we already achieved in 2021, will be reached by us again in around 2-3 years: the crisis will end, and we will reach 100 million tonnes again. Within the subsequent five years, we will reach 130 million-150 million tonnes, and here we need to simultaneously develop logistics channels and infrastructure for further export. And, at the same time, it will be necessary to develop the processing of agricultural products at a more advanced level in order to generated a larger added value inside the country," Osipov said.

The year of 2023 is not the best time to develop the agricultural sector in Ukraine due to the physical shortage of agricultural raw materials in the country following a drop from 100 million tonnes to 65 million tonnes, he said.

The development of the processing sector after the crisis will start with oil-bearing crops such as sunflower, soya and rapeseed, to be followed by corn and then by other agricultural crops, he said. "Today, having reduced export volumes, we will lose $10 billion in exports per year, and we still have $10 billion upside. Within five years, we may receive an extra $20 billion a year from this sector. It is an enormous amount of money. And if there is the right tax field in the country, confirmation of ownership, necessary insurance, this resource will be sufficient for reinvesting it in the processing sector, a move which will help enter a new stage of processing and the production of goods with higher profit margins," Osipov said.

Before the crisis, Kernel was the world's largest sunflower oil producer (around 7% of the world's output of sunflower oil) and exporter (approximately 12%). It was also a major producer and supplier of bottled sunflower oil in Ukraine. Besides, the company produced and sold other agricultural crops.