Government Should Only Subsidise Small Farmers and Sole Traders - Oleg Bakhmatyuk

This is what the owner of the agricultural holding company Ukrlandfarming, Oleg Bakhmatyuk, told Dmitry Gordon in an interview.

The businessman believes that support for small farmers should be the basis of a government support programme, as it is primarily a social employment project. Medium-sized agricultural businesses, in turn, are able to fully meet the country's food needs. The function of large agribusiness is to enter foreign markets and attract multibillion-dollar investments into the country with the right government policy.

"Farmers or sole traders — in Europe, this is a socio-political project of employment. To prevent people from leaving for a city like Vienna, for example, they are provided with conditions for comfortable living in the countryside. And the government also gives them money to support their production under various programmes. This is the policy. Ukraine needs to pursue this policy towards small-scale production," Oleg Bakhmatyuk said.

According to the businessman, this will provide employment for up to 5-7 million people:

"This is an important process, a social process. 100% of subsidies should go there. There should be maximum government support for lending. Because it is the right thing to do in principle."

According to Oleg Bakhmatyuk, medium-sized businesses can fully meet the country's food demand.

Ukraine needs 20% of what it produces to fully supply itself with food. 20-30% is our productive balance sheet. It's security — so that we have something to eat. Because money doesn't matter — what matters is what you can buy with it."

In the businessman's opinion, large-scale agribusiness can help Ukraine solve its strategic challenges:

"30% are the same guys as me. This is an opportunity to influence foreign markets. This is the market of Japan. This is the Korean market. We export to Japan, Korea, China, Indonesia, and the Middle East — Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. The European Union: Italy, Spain… We are actually in the raw materials zone now. Or we can go into value-added products. The egg is a value-added product, for example. Because it is produced using advanced machinery, labour and product innovation. Then there is egg powder, which we also export. And at each stage, what does added value add? It adds social commitments and tax support. That is, you pay more taxes and hire more people. This is what all normal countries do and what we should also do.

• to the protein chain. And export it. Because there is no shortage of grain in the world. There is a shortage of protein in the world. And this protein chain is the future. What do we need to do that?

This requires investment. And once again, the investment will come from someone who needs to supply these products for the next 15 years. And these are the companies, let's say, I'm "Ukrlandfarming"

• This is a business card with which you come to us: look, here is a pool of supplies, and you have to pay $3 billion for infrastructure — build a port, build a plant. What does this add? It adds to the capitalisation of the country itself, fills it with meaning, that is, it creates jobs and, accordingly, government revenue. This is not Bakhmatyuk's theory — these are things that China, the European Union, and the United States of America are going through. And these are the things that Ukraine has to go through."

Today, the Cabinet of Ministers will consider a resolution on state support for the purchase of irrigation equipment.