The Chairman of Ukrainian Agri Council (UAC), Andrii Dykun, told the publishing office “Comments” how Ukrainian agricultural products can conquer the world markets more actively.

"In order to be able to conquer world markets actively, we need to work in several directions. First of all: we need to produce value-added products and that means to develop the processing industry. Therefore, farmers need cooperatives. A new law on agricultural cooperation has already been adopted - and it came into force on November 15. Its biggest advantage is that it allows agricultural producers-legal entities to unite, which was not provided for in the previous legislation. It means that even small agricultural producers can unite, organize vegetables, fruit or milk processing and sell products.

But this is only one part of the case, which requires legislation changes - and we have already come a long way in this direction. However, another requires changes in the mentality of farmers themselves. In addition, there is the other moment. Because a cooperative and a processing factory are not about money. The processing plant does not earn so much. However, without it we will not be able to sell our raw materials expensively.

If we want our agribusiness to make money not only when the price is high, but always, we must have the infrastructure and processing. We must have access to the sea that means - the port. Yes, farmers will not make money on this if they develop a separate port elevator or processing plant. However, the task of cooperatives, especially processing and logistics - is to do everything to ensure that farmers receive for their products always the highest possible price.

The third point: in order to move the markets, we need the Ministry of Agrarian Policy. We can't do without it. Our country is export-oriented - and the Ministry must work to open new markets. In some countries, such as the East ones, the status of the country being negotiated is important. They will speak on equal terms only with the minister," Andrii Dykun said.