News

DLG / 28 September 2021
Agritechnica partners Large Farm Management Conference (LFM) in Ukraine

Over 400 agribusiness professional attended; EU Green Deal, plant based protein, organic farming and Ukrainian farmland market opening 2021

Press release / (Frankfurt am Main) his year, Agritechnica, the world’s largest trade fair for agricultural machinery, partnered again with the annual Large Farm Management Conference (LFM) held in Kyiv, Ukraine on 9 September 2021. In order to discover their machinery needs ahead of Agritechnica 2022, DLG’s Ukrainian Agritechnica team engaged with the 400 attending agribusiness professionals most of whom represented large-scale farming enterprises in Ukraine with an estimated total of three million hectares of arable land.

LFM traditionally precedes Agritechnica by a few months, which can help set the tone for an Agritechnica visit. The attendees to LFM often expect to equip themselves with information that will enable accurate investment decisions over the next year. In this context, Agritechnica may play a central role for these farm professionals allowing a close inspection and comparison of a range of machinery options for the future, as summarized by a large-scale agribusiness attendee:

„IMC is always careful not to miss the Agritechnica exhibition, surely also not in 2022. I believe there is no better platform to get to know the latest technologies. For our large-scale farming enterprise, we are actively developing further our machinery range in terms of precision farming. At Agritechnica, my colleagues and I are interested in equipment for variable-rate seeding and fertilization that will allow us to save input material. We would also like to see equipment for seeding at high speeds at Agritechnica in 2022. That is for us the top priority,” said Oleksandr Verzhykhovskyi, Chief Operation Offcer of IMC, a stock-listed agricultural business company, farming on over 120,000 hectares, headquartered in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Under discussion: EU Green Deal; organic farming; farmland purchases for individuals

The LFM conference 2021 highlighted the current topics relevant to Ukrainian large-scale farmers and helped agribusiness professionals take astute decisions about the future direction of their farm, which often involves machinery choices and new techniques.

Summary of topics discussed:

The EU Green Deal attracted much attention, since most of the large agribusinesses are focused on EU exports. In addition to the legal framework, carbon farming practices such as the use of cover crops and tillage reduction were actively discussed. The company Bayer, a company associated with Agritechnica, announced at LFM that it will incorporate Ukrainian farmers in its recently launched Carbon Initiative, alongside farmers from France, Spain, Belgium, Denmark, Germany and the United Kingdom. The aim is to promote the adoption of climate-smart farming practices.
Originally a western trend that has been closely observed by Ukraine’s large scale farmers, the increasing demand for plant based protein as an alternative to meat is resulting in the gradual adoption of legumes in their cropping systems. However, farmers do not expect it to become mainstream soon, especially not in Ukraine, where the consumption of animal meat is an important part of the culture. Discussions concluded that consumers may tend towards a flexitarian diet, which means a plant-based diet with the occasional addition of animal products. Ultimately though the price will be the deciding factor.
Organic and gluten free cereals were defined by the attendees as representing growing export segments. Their cultivation will require both special machinery much of which is found at Agritechnica as well as information about seeds and crop protection.
Ukraine’s farm land market opened up for Ukrainian private individuals as of July 1 this year. As a result, the Ukrainian government expects a high volume of private domestic investments which will contribute to reducing the black economy. Currently, the price-levels vary at 1600-3000 US dollars per hectare and are expected to increase at the rate of 20 percent per year. As before, Ukrainian legal entities as well as foreign individuals and foreign legal entities can continue to lease agricultural land and own non-agricultural land.

DLG and Ukrainian Agri-Business Club with long cooperation

The world’s leading trade fair for agricultural machinery, Agritechnica, once again was the international partner of the annual Large Farm Management Conference (LFM). The LFM Conference is organised by the Ukrainian Agri-Business Club and UCABevent Agency. The organizer of Agritechnica, the DLG (German Agricultural Society), has been cooperating with the Ukrainian Agri-Business Club, organiser of LFM, for more than 10 years with both organizations pursuing the joint objective of promoting the sharing of relevant agricultural knowledge in the agricultural sector.

“Since the DLG founded its subsidiary here in Ukraine, our relationship with large-scale agribusiness professionals has become even closer. This means that at Agritechnica in February 2022, we can match the needs of such Ukrainians visitors much more precisely. The topics and trends highlighted at the conference today gives us good guidance on the likely interest areas of these farmers at Agritechnica,” says Yulia Bondarenko, Managing Director, DLG Ukraine

Attending Agritechnca will be a representatives of the Ukrainian Agri-Business Club, which represents the interests of leading companies in the Ukrainian agro-food sector, promoting efficient agribusiness practices in Ukraine while supporting the improvements of agricultural policies in Ukraine. Members of Ukrainian Agri-Business Club include a long list of leading Agritechnica exhibitors.

further information: DLG, www.dlg.org