In the course of the land reform, Ukraine should initially allow land to be purchased only by its agrarians, and not allow foreigners and legal entities to enter the land market. Such opinion was expressed during the roundtable "Land sale: Ukrainian realities and Lithuanian experience", organized by the Ukrainian Agri Council, by the the Deputy Chairman of the Agrarian Committee of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, the ex-Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of Lithuania Kazis Starkevichus.

The member of the Lithuanian Seimas has shared his experience in implementing land reform in his country. In particular, the maximum amount of land that a person can acquire in Lithuania is 500 hectares. During the first 10 years, foreigners were not allowed to buy land in Lithuania. It was a transition period and foreigners were granted the right to buy land in 2014, with a number of restrictions. However, foreign corporations were able to circumvent the ban by buying the corporate rights of companies that owned land. Also, until 2014, there were no restrictions on the purchase of land by related parties in the Republic of Lithuania, resulting in large tracts of land being concentrated in one pair of hands. For example, one of the largest Lithuanian agro-holdings owns 30,000 hectares of land, despite the fact that the volume of agricultural land in Lithuania is 3 million hectares.

"Where did we make the mistake? Don't repeat this. We allowed related parties to buy land. In 2014, we fixed it. Currently, related parties cannot have more than 500 hectares of land. As for your rate of 200,000 hectares per one person, that's a lot. I know that in other countries there are 5, 10, 20 thousand hectares in possession - it is more than them all. And don't let related people buy land, otherwise you'll have big problems, ”said Kazis Starkevichus.

UAC Chairman Andriy Dykun highlighted: Lithuanian experience shows that the rise in land prices doesn’t depend on the arrival of foreigners to the land market.

“We are convinced that with the admission of foreigners to the land market, the price of land will rise. However, the experience of Lithuania shows that the price increase did not happen when foreigners came, but when Lithuania joined the European Union, ”Andriy Dykun said.

During the discussion, UAC Deputy Chairman Mykhailo Sokolov highlighted that, as promised by the government, the economy will not grow after the launch of the land market in Ukraine. The level of investment of agricultural producers in the agro-sector with the launch of land reform will decrease significantly, as farmers will direct the funds to the purchase of land.

“If we have to invest in the purchase of land, then we will have zero growth. Where can be a plus? From the fact that people have received money for shares, they will go with them to the consumer market. However, it will be a formal contribution to GDP, since it does not imply an increase in production, people just buy more. And part of the money will simply go abroad, since in the consumer basket 60% - imported goods. Therefore, even if we conservatively approach the estimate, we will have the following growth rates: in the first year - 0.4% of GDP growth, in the second - 1.3%, then - 0.8%, etc.”, - said Mykhailo Sokolov.

The roundtable was also attended by Mykola Solskyy, Chairman of the Committee on Agrarian and Land Policy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, who noted during the discussion that the norm on land concentration per one person should be reconsidered.

"There will be a decrease in the concentration of land per one person, for sure," he said.

The Presidential Commissioner on Land Affairs Roman Leshchenko noted that there should be a consolidated bill, which should systematically address the basic issues that have arisen today during the implementation of the land reform.