Land prices and the balance of its supply and demand will be established after 2024, when legal entities (including large agricultural holdings) will be able to buy land, then a full-fledged agricultural land market will appear in Ukraine.
This opinion was expressed to the Interfax-Ukraine agency by the co-founder of the Land Club association of land investors, Oleksandr Kolotilin.
He clarified that all large agricultural holdings with which his organization works intend to buy agricultural land leased by them.
“We work with large agricultural holdings. I can say that all the companies we talked to intend to buy agricultural land that they lease and cultivate. I cannot name them, since many of them are public companies, and they must declare themselves their position and intention to purchase land or plans in 2024. But all large agricultural holdings are making exactly such plans,” Kolotilin said.
According to the data on the Land Club website, the founder of the investment organization is the director general of IMC agricultural holding and the president of the Ukrainian Agribusiness Club, Alex Lissitsa. The project offers investors the purchase of land plots leased by agricultural holdings in order to receive guaranteed rent from them.
Earlier, MHP Financial Director Viktoria Kapeliushna announced that her company was not interested in buying land. She noted that the economic model of the agricultural holding includes work on the leased land, and in the event of a change in its owner, the group of companies will look for other land plots for lease.
A similar opinion was expressed by the owner of KSG Agro agricultural holding, Serhiy Kasyanov. The agricultural holding does not plan to buy land after the opening of the land market, since its activities involve working with leased plots.
The president’s bill about farmland turnover in Ukraine, which should be published within two weeks, allows legal entities to participate in the land market, acting Minister of Agricultural Policy and Food of Ukraine Olha Trofimtseva has said. “The president’s position regarding legal entities is quite liberal and this is one of the disagreements that exist between us. I believe that certain restrictions, safeguards should be established at the first transitional stage, I advocate a phased opening of the market and, accordingly, its phased liberalization,” she said at a press conference.
According to Trofimtseva, the presidential bill is based on the government’s bill.
“The changes that will be made in it concern legal entities, I think we will see it soon, it will be introduced in the Verkhovna Rada as the president’s bill, but this will be the subject of discussion after the first working day of the Verkhovna Rada, after the formation of the new Cabinet [of Ministers]. This is a question of a week or two,” the acting minister said.
In addition, Trofimtseva said that as part of the land reform, at least six or seven bills will be presented that will be aimed at the normal functioning of the land market.
BILL, FARMLAND, LEGAL ENTITIES, MARKET, PARTICIPATE, TURNOVER
