Companies with a large land bank are not a feature of Ukraine, they also operate in the EU

In 2021, the total land area of ​​agricultural holdings decreased to 5 million hectares, indicating a transition from quantitative growth to qualitative optimization.

“An important trend has been the integration of medium and small producers. Large companies are increasingly interested not only in leasing land, but also in cooperating with small and medium producers through the supply of technologies, services, and assistance with entering markets,” the experts added.

The Ukrainian “peculiarity” of agrarian business consolidation is actually not a unique phenomenon in the global context. Similar structures exist in many countries with large land resources — Brazil, Argentina, Australia. There is also a trend towards farm consolidation in the European Union, especially in Eastern European countries. For example, in Romania, companies operate with a land bank of over 50 thousand hectares, in Lithuania – over 35 thousand hectares, which, taking into account the scale of these countries, is an even more sensitive level in comparison with Ukrainian indicators. “Old Europe is also not far behind – in France, only 7% of farms have over 100 hectares, but they cultivate more than half of the agricultural land. In the Czech Republic, 8% of farms control 70% of the land,” the researchers summarized.

Tags: Ukraine, EU