“Ukraine must prevail. It must be rebuilt, and it must be in charge of its own future.” With these words Mark Titterington, moderating the mini-conference, welcomed guests and opened the discussions. The aim of the day was to define how to put Ukraine on the road to recovery and enable the country to fulfil its potential. That means providing both the support and tools for defence, and the technical and financial assistance for recovery, he said. Held following the Berlin Recovery Conference and the recent peace summit, the event zoned in on Ukraine’s most important sector: agriculture.

Agriculture contributes 10% of Ukraine’s GDP and the majority of its exports, and is both a critical supplier to the European Union and responsible for feeding hundreds of millions of people globally.

The conference went on to address three distinct aspects in separate panel sessions:

• Supporting agricultural recovery
• Restoring Ukraine’s access to global agricultural markets
• Defining the relationship and framework needed between the EU and Ukraine.

“There is a global imperative and a shared collective European responsibility to make good on some of the commitments to Ukraine,” said Mark. He started by asking the speakers: Where is agriculture in the country today and what is needed? What are the hopes and concerns of the relevant stakeholders?

On the invited panel were Taras Vysotskyi, Acting Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, First Deputy Minister; Serhiy Tereshko, Deputy Head of the Mission of Ukraine to the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community; and Alessandro Malavoti, Vice-President, CEMA (European Agricultural Machinery Association).

Kicking off, Serhiy Tereshko called for reasoned, expert debate: “There are a lot of unreasonable speculations and manipulations. We don’t want this. It’s important to bring expert and targeted discussion.” He highlighted Ukraine’s resilience and capability to provide food: despite the war the country still feeds 400 million people globally. Looking to the future with the EU, he said the focus must be on partnership, not competition – a theme that would be echoed throughout the sessions ahead. “We are ready to increase our contribution to food security, jointly with the European Union. Working together, we can build mutually beneficial agriculture rather than being competitors.”

Taras Vysotskyi stressed that action is needed urgently. “We ask the participants today to initiate as many projects as possible in cooperation with Ukrainian agricultural producers. We can’t wait. We have to move.” A major priority was energy security through independent, alternative energy supplies.

Alessandro Malavoti brought up the priorities for farms. “They need a lot of machinery, a lot of technology, but the main challenge is the labour supply,” he said. He echoed that Ukrainian agriculture remains capable of playing a significant role in global food security. “It grew last year and it’s still growing. There is significant resilience,” said Mr Malavoti.

There was an upbeat feel to the session with a focus on resilience, a sense of optimism and obvious potential for the future. As Mr Titterington concluded: “Ukraine is a good investment.”

Panel 1: Ukraine Recovery / Ukraine Facility Plan for agriculture
The Ukraine Facility put forward by the EU is pivotal to driving recovery – but what is needed to make it work and where does it stand today? This was the topic of the second session of the mini-conference. The Facility provides Ukraine with up to €50 billion between 2024 to 2027, underlining commitment to supporting the country in the face of the ongoing war and on its path towards EU membership.

To set the context, Dr Gilles Dryancour, Chairman of the CEMA Strategic Committee and Vice-President Corporate Affairs, Europe, John Deere, talked through some of the positives and negatives relating to Ukraine. He introduced a position paper published by CEMA in 2023 and making 14 recommendations. While the paper was written a year ago on the assumption the war would now be over, it still forms a basis for discussion and is “a living document”.

On the plus side, Ukraine has 25% of the most fertile soil on the planet and exported to 150 countries before the war, making a significant contribution to global food security. On the minus side, is the immense toll of the war: vast damage to and loss of machinery and at least 500,000 hectares of land polluted or mined.

Finance for farming and to spur reconstruction and modernization is a pressing issue, he said, and it was one that panelists returned to throughout. “If you don’t have treasury, if you don’t have cash, you cannot do anything. You are out of business,” said Dr Dryancour. But recovery needs to be visionary and go beyond finance, looking at full modernization of the agriculture sector.

Energy security is paramount, said Nazar Bobitski, Director, Brussels office, Ukrainian Agribusiness Club (UCAB). As well as finance, Ukraine desperately needs restored access to global markets. The guiding principle must be to restore the economy overall in a balanced and managed way through economic integration and closer links with the European and single markets – and this must be speeded up.

“The European Commission correctly seized the moment by launching the Ukraine Facility, particularly encouraging bolder, more targeted investments to support Ukraine’s private sector recovery. But the pace is insufficient and too timid.” He called for a robust relationship between the Facility bureaucracy and the Ukraine business community to push forward investment.

Collaborative relationships across the board, rather than competition, were important from the German agri-business perspective. “I hope we can build a bridge between Berlin and Brussels and back,” said Dirk Stratmann, Spokesman Ukraine and Central Asia, German Agribusiness Alliance (GAA), Berlin. He gave a successful example, a collaboration between the German and Ukrainian seed associations, sharing experiences and best practices and helping Ukraine adjust. “Feeding the world is a team sport. It’s about joining forces to move forward.”

Is progress being made? Is the environment becoming more supportive for private companies to invest, operate, grow and develop? asked Mark Titterington.

It’s currently impossible to actually measure progress in numbers, replied Gilles Dryancour, but what has positively surprised the private sector is the country’s resilience in the face of war. “Under these dire circumstances Ukraine has still been able to export – it’s unbelievable. If Ukraine could accelerate recovery in peacetime, there is huge potential for our business and the whole industry.”

Concluding the session, Dirk Stratmann said: “There is a unique opportunity to turn a catastrophe into a competitive advantage. It is not just a case of rebuilding the country and its agriculture as it used to be, but being two steps ahead, and that will enable a significant increase in competitiveness. Ukraine can be a partner on the European continent, and also internationally, supplying food to the world.”

And in his view, the reconstruction of Ukraine should be a part of rethinking the way forward for European agriculture as a whole, with a positive impact on the agricultural sector far beyond Ukrainian borders.

Read the summaries of the other sessions at this event:

Panel 2: Global market access for Ukrainian agriculture

Panel 3: EU framework and Ukrainian agriculture

Watch the full sessions on our videos page and you can read the CEMA position paper.