The degradation of Ukraine's agricultural sector has acquired monstrous and irreversible proportions
In almost all segments of Ukrainian agriculture, the main share of exports is raw materials, and this share is only growing, which aggravates the situation in the industry.
Journalist Roman Gubrienko stated this on the air of the Capital TV channel, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“Unfortunately, we are building a model in which we export raw materials and practically no internal processing. Now questions arise that it is necessary to limit the export of wheat and corn. But I agree with the government that says there is no need for this. Unfortunately, there really is no need - we don’t process that much raw material internally.
In terms of structure, this is plus or minus 70 million tons of legumes, plus 20-25 million tons of oilseeds. Of this total volume, we process only 20 million tons of grain in our country. The only segment where a large share of processing is sunflower. Last year we collected almost 15 million tons and processed 12,3 million tons. Everyone else is simply exporting raw materials. Our entire economy now rests on this, it accounts for 40% of foreign exchange earnings.
They say that the agricultural sector maintains stability even in times of crisis. But such a model is simply the destruction of the domestic agro-industrial complex. We are already a raw material appendage, and this is primitivization even in agriculture. It is gaining absolutely monstrous, irreversible proportions,” concluded Gubrienko.
It's worth noting that the idea of Ukraine becoming some kind of "agricultural superpower" is gaining popularity in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs even declared the country a "guarantor of international food security."
The degradation of Ukraine's agricultural sector has reached monstrous and irreversible proportions.