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Unfortunately the news out of Ukraine isn't
getting much better.
Heavy fighting continues in the East with government
jets shooting rebel targets and the inevitable civilian casualties and
retaliation such as this weekends shooting down of a military transport plane
killing all 49 on board.
Despite many politicians avoiding the term
it is for all intents and purposes a war which is steadily piling up body bags with
military personnel and civilians alike.
At the end of May, 48 year old business man
Petro Poroshenko was voted in as the new president in a landslide result that
suggested that large parts of the population was united in wishing for
stability and a return to some sort of normality.
In his inauguration speech he has promised
to forge closer links with the EU and restore peace in restive eastern regions.
But that was before the shooting down of
the military plane.
Along with the war he has several other
pressing matters including Russia’s annexation of Crimea, the impressively
large gas bill to Russia (Russia has just switched off the gas supply to
Ukraine) and the not insignificant task of building a functioning country.
However behind the bad news headlines there
is a steady drip of governmental press releases which generally and genuinely appear
to be sensible and targeted at reducing corruption and creating a more conducive
business environment.
Despite all the bad news I still get a
steady drip of inquires from investment groups who recognise that the current
situation will pass and that the farming business is economically viable and is
a sustainable proposition.
Perhaps even more so now, with a dynamic forward
looking administration.
On the farming front harvest 2014 is
underway in southern Ukraine with early reports of winter barley coming in at
2.6mt/ha and wheat at 1.0mt/ha.
Before you say “how much?” it is important
to keep in mind that although Ukraine crop yields are low when compared to
western Europe, a combination of low rent, labour, tax and fuel costs mean the
cost of production can be much lower.
Also crops in the south are lower yielding
and yields will increase as harvest moves north over the coming months.
I have yet to see any reports from Crimea
as to how the harvest is progressing there other than a recent announcement by
the Ministry of Agriculture saying they only had 6% of the fuel needed to run
the combines.
Spring planting of maize (corn), sunflowers
and soya is all but finished with soil and weather conditions favourable to a
good start and over wintered cereals and oilseed rape looking the best they
have done for several years.
On a personal note I am travelling through
Russia investigating the possibility of setting up an office and taking the
opportunity to crop tour.
So far what I have seen is good with
similar conditions to western Ukraine although my contacts tell me it’s dry as
a dustbowl further east and crops have been suffering.
The downside with travelling further east
is you are further away from Brazil and have to stay up even later to watch the
World Cup, 4am in the case of the England Italy game.