Miller Magazine Issue: 127 July 2020

64 INTERVIEW MILLER / JULY 2020 There are concerns that Covid-19 will have lasting impacts on international grain trade. Do you share these concerns? We hope everything will be OK and COVID-19 will not have a big impact on grain trade. But we understand that some financial troubles the pandemic can create. But it will have not critical for the trade because every country will try to have enough food and feed consump- tion. Ukraine produces more than 3 times more grain and oilseeds than we need, so we can export it without any problems. However, economic recession all over the world can make some turbulence on the international market, but also we see how the government of the USA or EU supports their economy. In Ukraine, we do not have such financial support, but also do not have any restrictions. What kind of changes have you experienced in the grain industry in recent years? We have a good tendency to increase grain production and export. For example, the average yield of wheat in Ukraine is 4 t per ha and in France, it is 8. Or we have an average yield of corn 7 t per ha and in the USA (Iowa state, because of the same climate and weather condi- tions) – 12 t per ha. So we understand that we have big potential. That's why we see some tendency of changing production technology of grain, and we are changing our approach to production and export. Ukrainian grain becomes more and more competitive on the internation- al market, and we see such changes. Ukraine is one of the most important grain produc- ers and exporters in the world. It has been trying to increase its exports. However, logistics problems are limiting the Ukrainian grain trade. Could you tell us recent investment plans and projects to solve logis- tics problems? Almost 95-98% of all grain export Ukraine do by its seaports. And the main limiting factor is how to trans- port grain from the field to the port. The main transport