The farmers discussed the situation in the agricultural sector, legislative initiatives of the UAC, activities and topical issues of the industry in the context of the war and the blockade of exports to the EU market together with Chairman of the Ukrainian Agri Council Andrii Dykun, his Deputy Chairman Dmytro Kokhan and the First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Taras Vysotskyi. Among the main topics: "grain corridor", development of logistics routes and harvest sales.

"If we can cover the sky, we will be able to export. Therefore, there is great hope for political decisions to provide Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets and a successful counteroffensive by the Armed Forces of Ukraine," emphasized Andriy Dykun.

The participants also discussed the support of the agricultural sector by both Ukraine and the European Union, the implementation of donor programs and investment attraction. In this context, Andrii Dykun spoke about the international activities of the UAC.

"We have planned and are holding meetings with politicians and farmers from neighboring EU countries to support the domestic agricultural sector. At the last meeting with Lithuanians, we agreed to lobby the European Commission to create European reserves in Ukraine - intervention grain purchases, which is quite satisfactory for international partners and agricultural producers, as our grain will remain in Ukraine and will not create competition for European farmers. This is one of the options to support our agricultural sector in case exports blocking, in particular to Poland, of Ukrainian agricultural products," said Andrii Dykun.

First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy Taras Vysotskyi thanked the participants of the UAC for their legislative work, as well as food and humanitarian support to the citizens and the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Agricultural producers addressed him with urgent issues, including postponement of military service by workers of agricultural sector.

"The Ministry of Agrarian Policy fully supports the UAC's initiatives to simplify the postponement criteria, in particular for conscripted farmers from the de-occupied territories. The changes proposed by the UAC may be adopted in September," he said.

Among other things, they considered the problems and proposals to support the agricultural sector of the de-occupied territories, which are being worked on by the UAC experts. According to Taras Vysotsky, in this context, the Government plans to approve changes to the terms of lending under the 5-7-9 program in September and provide preferential terms for de-occupied enterprises - loans at 1% with a state guarantee.

They also discussed the issue of increasing lending limits under the 5-7-9 program from UAH 90 million to UAH 180 million. This is the proposal submitted by the UAC to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine. Taras Vysotskyi said that the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food fully supports this proposal and will defend it at the meetings of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. We expect this issue to be resolved in the near future, and lending thresholds will be gradually increased.

At the same time, they raised the issue of investment and export insurance, as well as the issue of continuing the land market reform, in particular, increasing the limit of land owned by one person from January 1, 2024.