A farm in the south of Ukraine, a member of the UAC, has been in the occupied territory since the beginning of the war. Nevertheless, it fulfills its obligations to the state by paying its loan arrears, wages and taxes. Kolos PE does not carry out economic activities, but it hopes for victory and de-occupation, and thus for a return to growing agricultural products on 3,000 hectares, as it was before the war.

To ensure that such enterprises are not left alone with their problems, the UAC, with the support of the USAID AGRO Program, is implementing a project to provide legal and advisory support to affected agricultural producers.

"We were occupied in the first days of the war, and we were unable to take out any assets - almost all of our crops were stolen by the occupiers. The machinery, some of which the farm had taken out a loan for before the war, could not be taken out either. We also had loans for working capital under the 5-7-9 program. For two years of the war, we have been restructuring our debts and fighting off unlawful tax charges. The experts of the joint project of the UAC and the USAID AGRO Program have been helping us a lot with this, and we have been in close contact with them for almost a year and have been receiving legal support. Sometimes the response to government requests needs to be immediate, and the UAC helps us very quickly. We receive sample documents and advice on how best to proceed. We are making all these efforts to return to full-fledged economic activity and are looking forward to de-occupation. But the longer it goes on, the harder it is to do so," says Oleksandr Omelchenko, director of the occupied enterprise.

Due to the fact that the farm managed to sell a small part of the harvest before the start of the great war, the company was able to pay interest on loans.

"The staff was minimized to reduce the payroll. We expect the government to fulfill its obligations and pay off the bank on 5-7-9 program that were issued before the war. As the project experts explained to us, these payments will be made no earlier than April 1," the company said.

The occupied agricultural enterprise followed the advice of the UAC experts on debt restructuring and defending the farm's rights before the tax authorities. "Farms like ours turned out to be of no use to anyone, but we are holding on and appreciate the legal support of the UAC. Thanks to the UAC experts, we continue to solve our problems and believe in a better future," summarized the agricultural producer.

The name of the occupied enterprise and the name of the Chairman have been changed for security reasons.

As a reminder, the UAC, with the support of the USAID Agriculture and Rural Development Program (AGRO), is implementing a joint project to provide legal and other expert support to agricultural producers affected by hostilities or temporary occupation by the Russian Federation.

Thanks to the project, affected agricultural producers will receive individualized advice on land, agrarian, tax legislation, etc. For prompt legal support, please contact the hotline at 067 503 19 08.

We remind that the UAC, with the support of the USAID Agriculture Growing Rural Opportunities Activity in Ukraine (AGRO), is implementing a joint project to provide legal and other expert support to agricultural producers affected by hostilities or temporary occupation by the Russian Federation.

Thanks to the project, affected agricultural producers will receive individualized advice on land, agrarian, tax legislation, etc. For prompt legal support, please contact the hotline at +38 067 503 19 08.