10 largest agricultural land users in Ukraine in 2021 and 2023.
Forewords
How did 5 million ha disappear?
Hidden privatization of land in Ukraine
Sławomir Matsusak
Analysis
2020-11-12
On 6 November, Prime Minister Denys Szmyhal presented the results of the economical audit Ukraine reported that 5 million hectares of agricultural land disappeared from state ownership. He thus confirmed the words of the Head of the State Service of Ukraine for Geodesy, Cartography and Catastrophe (hereinafter: State Service of Catastrophe, PSK) Roman Łeszekenko, who in a series of interviews in late October reported thatMost of the state's agricultural land has been privatized illegally.
Under the alleged free privatisation provided for by the Earth Code of 2001 (the Land Property Law), theoretically all citizen Ukraine has the right to get six plots of different uses and a full area of about 6 ha.
Analysis
2020-11-12
On 6 November, Prime Minister Denys Szmyhal presented the results of the economical audit Ukraine reported that 5 million hectares of agricultural land disappeared from state ownership. He thus confirmed the words of the Head of the State Service of Ukraine for Geodesy, Cartography and Catastrophe (hereinafter: State Service of Catastrophe, PSK) Roman Łeszekenko, who in a series of interviews in late October reported thatMost of the state's agricultural land has been privatized illegally.
According to PSK calculations, after the decentralisation improvement of 2018-2020 resulted in about 4 million hectares of land, alternatively of the declared 6.4 million hectares of agricultural land, the state holds only 750 000 hectares of land. The missing over 5 million hectares (more than 50,000 km2, 8% of the country's territory) were, according to Łeschenko, illegally privatized as a consequence of a process that lasted for at least respective years and consisted of transferring small, maximum two-hectare plots into private hands. PSK forwarded papers on infringements in more than 300 cases to law enforcement authorities and announced the improvement of legal procedures to reconstruct illegally acquired land to state ownership.
Commentary Your Catastru Service deals with land records (including agricultural ones) and until late has had the opinion of 1 of the most corrupt institutions in Ukraine. Łeschenko, who took over her management in June this year, began auditing the registration strategy and inventory of agricultural land. During the audit, a number of gross infringements were revealed, including that 3rd parties had uncontrolled access to the register, which could have made any modifications, specified as changing the destination of the plot. Full control of the registry has now been restored, and work has been announced on the preparation of the country-wide aviation map, which will facilitate monitoring of land usage as intended.
Commentary Your Catastru Service deals with land records (including agricultural ones) and until late has had the opinion of 1 of the most corrupt institutions in Ukraine. Łeschenko, who took over her management in June this year, began auditing the registration strategy and inventory of agricultural land. During the audit, a number of gross infringements were revealed, including that 3rd parties had uncontrolled access to the register, which could have made any modifications, specified as changing the destination of the plot. Full control of the registry has now been restored, and work has been announced on the preparation of the country-wide aviation map, which will facilitate monitoring of land usage as intended.
Under the alleged free privatisation provided for by the Earth Code of 2001 (the Land Property Law), theoretically all citizen Ukraine has the right to get six plots of different uses and a full area of about 6 ha.
In practice, the process of awarding them was completely untransparent and depended on decisions of PSK officials at central level and in its regional branches. In addition, the deficiency of a functioning verification strategy for beneficiaries of the Code caused that 1 individual could get many plots of land, and the transfer of land to the sub-persons flourished.
For example, according to Šeszczenko, 80,000 ha of land in the Winnietsky Oblast was sent to the representatives of 5 related families. They besides privatized lands with a favourable location, e.g. around Kiev or in the coastal belt of the Ode region, and then changed their usage from agricultural to construction.
This was besides actual for areas with natural resources (e.g. gas, titanium ore or amber). From 2013 to 2020, the designation of 700,000 ha in this way is confirmed in the documentation (although thousands of cases have been abused), while the registry lacks more than 5 million ha privatised before 2013. Until the digitization of paper papers from that period, it is impossible to find whose hands they hit.
The head of PSK did not mention names, he simply claimed that the Service was headed by a ‘donietsk group’ and after 2014, a ‘viant group’. This can be understood as an accusation against erstwhile president Viktor Yanukovych (from Donetsk) and Petr Poroshenko and erstwhile Prime Minister Volodymyr Hrojsman (related to Winnic). In addition to the central authorities, representatives of regional elites were active in the various circuits.
5 million ha is simply a somewhat larger area than the territory of Slovakia. It is so amazing that the information of Łeszczenka did not origin a greater political storm. This may indicate that most of the Ukrainian political establishment, including representatives of the majority of opposition parties (in peculiar the European Solidarity and Opposition Platform – For Life), was active in the privatisation of the land.
Given the failure and the degree of corruption in the judiciary, there are serious doubts as to whether those active in illegal privatisation will be held accountable. It is besides unclear how the state will effort to recover the privatised land. Eleschenko proposes that these cases should have a shortened procedure for the examination by the ultimate Anti-corruption Court. However, a possibly large number of them may origin complete paralysis of this organ.
The 10 largest agricultural land users in Ukraine in 2021.
07 October 2021
Recent ranking published by Latifundist.com presents a list of the 10 largest farms in Ukraine in terms of agricultural area in 2020. Compared to last year's ranking, the full agricultural area controlled by the 10 largest Ukrainian agroholdings remained almost the same and amounts to 2.65 million ha.
Original text:
Top 10 Ukrainian agricultural land users 2021
07 October 2021
A percent ranking published by Latifundist.com presents the list of Ukraine’s top 10 agroholdings based on farmland area under operation in 2020. As compared to the erstwhile year’s ranking, the full farmland controlled by Ukrainian 10 largest growings has been restored close the same and stands at 2.65 million hectares. However, square No. 8 was taken by a fresh company on the list, Agrarian Systems Technologies (AST), which managed to increase its farmland 40,000 hectares to 150,000 hectares in 2019-2020. Kernel, No.1 in the ranking, reduced its farmland operations 20,000 hectares as compared to 2019 and farmered a full of 510,000 hectares in 2020.
Name --- eventual beneficial owner ----Registered office -----Farmland in 2019
1 Kernel Andriya Verevskyi Luxembourg City, Luxembourg 530 510
Main activities: crop production, sunflower oil production
2 UkrLandFarming Oleg Bakhmatyuk Nicosia, Cyprus 500 475
Main activities: crop production; meat, milk and egg production
3 MHP Yuri Kosiuk Nicosia, Cyprus 370 370
Main activities: crop production; livestock production; poultry production; meat processing, biogas production
4 Agroprosperis (New Century Holding) George Rohr, Maurice Tabasinik fresh York City, fresh York, USA 300 300
Main activities: graves and oilseeds production
5 Astarta-Kyiv Viktor Ivanchyk Amsterdam, The Netherlands 235 243
Main activities: crop, sugar and milk production; livestock production; biogas production
6 Continental Farmers Group SALIC Ternopil, Ukraine 195 195
Main activities: crop and potato production; Grain storage; seed production
7 Epicenter Agro Oleksandr Gerega, Galyna Gerega Kyiv, Ukraine 160 160
Main activities: crop, livestock and regular production; Grain storage; flora and cereals production
8 Agrarian strategy Technologies (AST) Dmytro and Tetiana Kolesnyk Kyiv, Ukraine 110 150
Main activities: crop production
9 HarvEast Rinat Akhmetov, Vadym Novyskyi Donetsk, Ukraine 127 127
Main activities: crop and livestock production; Grain storage; mixed fodder production; seed production
10 IMC Oleksandr Petrov Luxembourg City, Luxembourg 123.9 120
Main activities: graves and oilseeds production; regular production
The 10 largest agricultural land users in Ukraine in 2021.
07 October 2021
Recent ranking published by Latifundist.com presents a list of the 10 largest farms in Ukraine in terms of agricultural area in 2020. Compared to last year's ranking, the full agricultural area controlled by the 10 largest Ukrainian agroholdings remained almost the same and amounts to 2.65 million ha.
However, seat 8 was taken by a fresh company on the list, Agrarian Systems Technologies (AST), which managed to increase the area of its agricultural land from 40,000 hectares to 150,000 hectares between 2019 and 2020. Kernel, No. 1 ranked, reduced its agricultural activity by 20,000 hectares compared to 2019 and grew a full of 510,000 hectares in 2020.
Main activities: production of cereals and oil seeds; Dairy production
Main activities: production of cereals and oil seeds; Dairy production
10 companies controlling arable land in Ukraine in 2023.
The largest landowners are a mixture of oligarchs and various abroad interests, mainly European and North American.
These companies are holding companies and usually operate through subsidiaries. The 10 largest of them are listed in Table 1.
The Oligarchs
Controlling 582 062 hectares, Kernel is the largest landowner as well as the largest maker and exporter of sunflower oil.
Its owner, Andrij Werewski, is the 16th richest man in Ukraine.
UkrLandFarming is the second largest landowner with 403 370 hectares. Founded by oligarch Oleg Bachmatiuk, who in 2016 was the 28th richest individual in Ukraine and has since lost many of his lands and assets as a consequence of the annexation of Crimea by Russia, specializes in the production of grain, eggs, milk and meat.
The 3rd largest landowner with 360 238 hectares is MHP, the largest chicken maker and exporter in Ukraine.
It was founded by the current CEO, Yuri Kosiuk, the tenth richest individual in the country.
Holding 264 270 hectares Astart is the largest sugar maker in Ukraine, and besides operates in industrial milk production and soya processing.
Its founder and current CEO, Viktor Ivanczyk, is the 95th richest individual in the country.
Founder Nibulon, Alexey Wadaturski, was the 24th richest individual in Ukraine, but died in July 2022 as a consequence of a Russian rocket attack.
Nibulon grows grain for export on 82 500 hectares.
Capital Management strategy (SCM) is the main financial and industrial holding company controlled by the richest man in Ukraine, Rinata Achmetov.
SCM owns various agricultural subsidiaries, in peculiar HarvEast, which produces wheat, sunflower, legumes, maize and cattle. The company manages 26,000 hectares of land, losing control of over 100,000 hectares as a consequence of the war.
Foreign companies
Several abroad companies consolidated any of the country's largest agricultural land. The 3 biggest of them are:
The 5th largest landowner in the country, with 290 749 hectares, is NCH Capital, an American private equity company that invests on behalf of leading American pension funds, university foundations and foundations.
It operates in Ukraine through AgroProsperis.
PIF Saudi, owned by the Sovereign Fund of Saudi Arabia, operates on 228,654 hectares through the Saudi Agriculture and Livestock Investment Company ("SALIC") and its subsidiary.
TNA Corporate Solutions, another US based company, is owned by American businessman Nicholas Piazza. It controls 295 624 hectares through respective subsidiaries including Pivden Agro Invest, Podillaya Agroproduct, Hetmanske and Prydniprovsky. Most of the land leased by TNA comes from transfers from UkrLandFarming made in fresh years
Original text:
Top 10 Ukrainian agricultural land users 2021
07 October 2021
A percent ranking published by Latifundist.com presents the list of Ukraine’s top 10 agroholdings based on farmland area under operation in 2020. As compared to the erstwhile year’s ranking, the full farmland controlled by Ukrainian 10 largest growings has been restored close the same and stands at 2.65 million hectares. However, square No. 8 was taken by a fresh company on the list, Agrarian Systems Technologies (AST), which managed to increase its farmland 40,000 hectares to 150,000 hectares in 2019-2020. Kernel, No.1 in the ranking, reduced its farmland operations 20,000 hectares as compared to 2019 and farmered a full of 510,000 hectares in 2020.
Name --- eventual beneficial owner ----Registered office -----Farmland in 2019
'000 ha ------------- Farmland in 2020, '000 ha
1 Kernel Andriya Verevskyi Luxembourg City, Luxembourg 530 510
Main activities: crop production, sunflower oil production
2 UkrLandFarming Oleg Bakhmatyuk Nicosia, Cyprus 500 475
Main activities: crop production; meat, milk and egg production
3 MHP Yuri Kosiuk Nicosia, Cyprus 370 370
Main activities: crop production; livestock production; poultry production; meat processing, biogas production
4 Agroprosperis (New Century Holding) George Rohr, Maurice Tabasinik fresh York City, fresh York, USA 300 300
Main activities: graves and oilseeds production
5 Astarta-Kyiv Viktor Ivanchyk Amsterdam, The Netherlands 235 243
Main activities: crop, sugar and milk production; livestock production; biogas production
6 Continental Farmers Group SALIC Ternopil, Ukraine 195 195
Main activities: crop and potato production; Grain storage; seed production
7 Epicenter Agro Oleksandr Gerega, Galyna Gerega Kyiv, Ukraine 160 160
Main activities: crop, livestock and regular production; Grain storage; flora and cereals production
8 Agrarian strategy Technologies (AST) Dmytro and Tetiana Kolesnyk Kyiv, Ukraine 110 150
Main activities: crop production
9 HarvEast Rinat Akhmetov, Vadym Novyskyi Donetsk, Ukraine 127 127
Main activities: crop and livestock production; Grain storage; mixed fodder production; seed production
10 IMC Oleksandr Petrov Luxembourg City, Luxembourg 123.9 120
Main activities: graves and oilseeds production; regular production
The full here:
War and Theft: The Takeover of Ukraine’s Agricultural Land
How did 5 million ha disappear? Hidden privatization of land in Ukraine
Top 10 Ukrainian agricultural land users 2021 | Large Scale Agriculture
2014:
Brief_CorporateTakeoverofUkraine_0.0.pdf
to check:
Ukraine's economy and finances are controlled by major players specified as the Rothschild home and BlackRock investment firm.
Financial Times reported that BlackRock took over assets of Ukrainian companies, including Metinvestu, DTEK, agricultural holding company MHP, Naftohaz, Urzalizny, Ukrainiantodor and Ukrenergo.
