Ukraine can turn into global agricultural hub for production of high-margin products

The two-day New Food Summit was held in Kyiv – the largest event in the industry, an event that served as a platform to bring together all representatives of the food and processing industries, food startups and investors, researchers and experts, all companies related to food production and distribution.

"Right now, Ukraine can turn into a global agricultural hub and processing center for the production of the latest, high-quality, high-margin and competitive products. The sector has all the prerequisites for this. I see several points of growth – innovations in agricultural technologies, creation of new products in Agri-FoodTech, export, globalization, digital technologies in food production. The introduction of such strategies can contribute to the sustainable growth of Ukrainian FoodTech, Ukrainian AgriFood. But will our country become a global player in the food market," Borys Shestopalov, co-owner, opened the New Food Summit with this message as the general partner of the event HD-group and GFSGROUP, the ideologue of the VOLIA ecosystem.

According to Borys Shestopalov, the way to the transformation of the Ukrainian food industry into foodtech lies through the construction of a cluster model.

"The Netherlands and Israel can serve as examples for us, which, despite the small territories involved in agricultural production, provide a high share of GDP thanks to the export of food products with added value. The small land resources of these countries have become their driver, and our boundless black soils have become a kind of trap," says the expert.

According to Shestopalov, Ukraine has the opportunity to develop large industrial parks on its territory, which will include a number of stakeholders – training and research centers, R&D laboratories, machine-building enterprises, engineering companies, and manufacturing enterprises, which will start with raw materials and end with the finished product. The final chain will be transport and warehouse companies.

"We will create a fundamentally new industry that the country can be proud of as it once was proud of the aerospace complex. The prerequisite for this system to work is the synergy of the efforts of business and the state. In my opinion, the state's participation should include support for foodtech startups — as in in the form of direct guarantees and preferential lending, as well as providing the necessary preferences for the construction of industrial facilities and food parks. This is an example of the best global practices that have worked for developed countries. The future of Ukrainian foodtech is a set of new industrial sites where modern enterprises are concentrated. There they have chains of creation and supply of quality raw materials should be built, a wide range of entrepreneurs involved in the creation of technologies and ingredients should be created. At the same time, new unique packaging solutions and innovative food products that meet consumer demands and the principles of sustainable development and green transition should be created on these sites. It is impossible to say that it is not timely. Our move to foodtech can become the engine of our recovery and development, a new vector of the national economy. This will become another national idea after our Victory," Borys Shestopalov concludes.