Denys Marchuk, the Ukrainian Agri Council (UAC) Deputy Chairman, in a speech at the ‘MediaCenter Ukraine’, emphasized the need to extend the deadline for reserving and identifying critical enterprises in the agricultural sector until March 31. This will allow agricultural enterprises to reserve workers in time and prevent disruption of the spring sowing campaign.

Due to the hostilities, Ukraine has lost the ability to cultivate about 20% of its land. At the same time, as mobilization increases, the need to reserve agricultural workers is growing. According to Denys Marchuk, farmers were among the first to be mobilized, and this process is ongoing, creating a significant staff shortage in the industry.

“Currently, the number one problem on the eve of the sowing campaign is military service deferment. We understand that it is necessary to protect the country, but it is also important for the agricultural sector to function. For critical enterprises, it is possible to reserve up to 50% of employees. However, changes to the reservation procedure that began in October and a cyberattack on Ukraine's registers in December resulted in many companies losing the opportunity to obtain critical status in time. In fact, the reservation process was blocked from December 19 to January 20” explained Denys Marchuk.

Currently, according to the current regulations, the identification of critical enterprises should be completed by February 28. However, due to the large number of applications, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy does not have time to process all the documents in time. This creates a risk of disruption of the sowing campaign, which may negatively affect exports and foreign exchange earnings.

“The agricultural sector plays an extremely important role in Ukraine's economy. In 2024, 59% of all exports were agricultural products, which brought the country 24.7 billion USD in foreign exchange earnings. If companies fail to sow their fields on time, this will directly affect Ukraine's export opportunities and the overall economic situation. The shortage of even a few workers in an average farm can lead to delays in field work, which is unacceptable in times of war” emphasized Denys Marchuk.

The UAC expects that the Cabinet of Ministers will decide to postpone the determination of the critical status of agricultural enterprises and reservation of workers until March 31. This will allow to complete bureaucratic procedures in time and guarantee the availability of the required number of employees in farms during the sowing campaign.