55% of the total area of Ukraine is arable land. It is not just a species: fertile soils rich in fats are of enormous agricultural value. But for a long time, it could only be rented. In 2001, the Ukrainian government adopted a moratorium on the sale and purchase of land, which was subsequently extended ten times. Farmers who had only a small area of land, the cultivation of which was not profitable, preferred to rent the area. Thus the small estates came under the influence of the large agricultural corporations, who used valuable black soil for a pittance.
A change occurred on July 1, 2021, when the previous moratorium was lifted under pressure from the Washington-based International Monetary Fund (IMF), and thus the possibility of buying and selling land became available again. Zelensky’s government began land privatization and enabled economic actors outside Ukraine to purchase agricultural land. Prices quickly jumped from $2,500 to $10,000 per hectare, which is still very good considering the high quality of the land.
In the year following the reform, three international consortia with American capital became the largest buyers in Ukraine. The Australian National Journal wrote that these three multinationals purchased a total of 17 million hectares of farmland, which represented 28 percent of arable land, or nearly a third. The three giants are Cargill, DuPont and Monsanto.
The portal article states, “The Ukrainian puppet government allowed three American companies to buy more agricultural land than there is in all of Italy.” They also declared that Ukrainian lands no longer belong to Ukrainians. However, President Volodymyr Zelensky himself previously described the unlimited acquisition of land by the Chinese, Arabs, or “unidentified flying objects” with horror stories.
The United States is not the first to set its sights on Ukrainian agricultural land. According to an earlier article in the Wall Street Journal, as early as 2013, China signed a half-century lease agreement for nine percent of Ukraine’s best agricultural land, which represents five percent of the country’s total area.
Giorgi Soros has already proven how good it is to buy farmland.
“I am convinced that arable land is one of the best investments of our time,” said the Hungarian-American businessman, who himself bought vast tracts in the past, and many speculators followed suit.
By the way, the role of Ukrainian agricultural land is also decisive from the point of view of world food, since Ukraine is one of the most important agricultural exporters: 16 percent of the world’s corn and 12 percent of wheat come from here.
Cover photo: Three multinational companies have acquired 17 million hectares of land (Photo: Europress/AFP)
