Highlights from the Forum:
Mykola Bezugly, First Deputy Minister for Agrarian Policy, highlighted the importance placed on agrarian reform by the President of Ukraine as part of the country's economic reform process.
He outlined 4 key stages of the reform and said that the main aim is to come as close to the international legislative base as possible, and to make it more transparent and easy to understand for international investors.
Grigory Smitiukh, Member of the Verkhovna Rada's Agrarian Policy Committee, addressed one of the industry's hottest issues - the Land reform
In his presentation he outlined the government's priorities for land reform. In his session he was joined by Jean-Jacques Herve of Credit Agricole Bank and Peter Bryde of EBRD, who both expressed their concerns about the current state of land reform, and challenged Mr Smitiukh with questions about the government's position on these concerns
Oleg Bakhmatyuk, Chairman and Main Shareholder of Avangard, one of Ukraine's largest Agriholdings, addressed the audience at the opening of the Forum
In his presentation Mr Bakhmatyuk spoke of his vision on how Ukraine can attract much needed investments into the agrarian sector, and which crucial steps are urgently needed in order to stimulate investor appetite in these challenging economic times.
Tim Andriesen of Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Ivan Miroshnichenko of Noble Resources both explored the opportunities for Ukraine to become a global grain market player
They spoke about bringing the CME group to Ukraine, establishing the necessary infrastrucutre and legislative base, and the role of the Black Sea Region in bringing Ukraine closer to the world commodity trading market to allow Ukraine to trade on an international level.
The presentation by Katre Saard, Founding Partner of Alpcot Capital Management was another highlight as she spoke about the very recent acquisition of Landkom by her fund Alpcot Agro
In her presentation Katre also highlighted the rationale for the acquisition as well as Alpcot Agro's strategy for Ukraine
Sergii Mazin of KSG Agro and Irina Poplavskaya of Agloliga both presented IPO case studies in the highly topical session on raising finance
The debate then focused on what sources of finance are available to Ukrainian agrarian companies in the current economic climate
Focus on Key Corporates - delegates had a unique opportunity to hear from the top exectives from Astarta-Kiev, Mironivskyi Khliboproduct, Ukrproduct Group, Mriya, Ukrainian Agrarian Investments, Svarog-West, Industrial Milk Company, Grains Alliance and Nestle
Some of the key speakers include:
Some of the key speakers include:
