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related to the internal situation in these companies, the situation on the stock exchanges, and fluctuations in the currency exchange rate in which the shares were traded. The exceptions were agricultural holdings Astarta-Kyiv and Ovostar Union, which demonstrated an increase in capitalization in the fourth quarter of 2023 compared to the fourth quarter of 2022. The reasons for this were an increase in the share price and the volume of shares traded on stock exchanges. A partial recovery of capitalization was demonstrated by agricultural holdings MHP and Ukrproduct, but this did not affect the overall picture. For most of the reporting period, they demonstrated a decrease in capitalization. According to calculations, the total capitalization of agricultural holdings (MHP, Kernel, Agroton, Astarta-Kyiv, AgroGeneration, Milkiland, IMK, KSG Agro, Ovostar Union, Ukrproduct, Agroliga) for the IV quarter of 2023 year amounted to €10.8B, which is €1.95B (15.3%) less than for the same period in 2022 (€12.77B).
Ukraine needs to build 150 vegetable storage facilities to ensure food security. The construction of dozens of modern warehouses for vegetables will allow Ukraine to become independent from product imports, especially in the spring, said Dmytro Solomchuk, a Verkhovna Rada Committee on Agrarian Policy member. "Ukraine has to build about 140-150 more vegetable warehouses. Currently, many producers store their products in poorly prepared warehouses or underground, and such conditions negatively affect product quality. Accordingly, even in April, some products will have to be imported because domestic ones will have lost their quality," said Solomchuk. He added that Ukraine has all the possibilities to fully provide itself with agricultural products. This year, the Ministry of Economy will offer more grants for food processing and equipment for vegetable storage.
In 2023, demining specialists surveyed 274,000 hectares of agricultural land in Ukraine, 208,000 hectares have already been cleared and returned to farmers. At the beginning of 2023, Ukraine did not have a single heavy machine for demining and had six mine removal equipment operators and 1,500 sappers. 2024 started with almost 30 machines, 26 operators, and over 3,000 sappers.
Ukraine needs to increase vegetable storage capacity by 60%. Analysts note that according to pre-war estimates, there were 493 non-specialized vegetable warehouses and 437 potato warehouses in Ukraine. Capacities were concentrated in areas with high production. The leading positions in potato storage belong to the Chernihiv (21.8%) and Zhytomyr (14.5%) regions, the total share of which is about 36.3%. The largest number of warehouses for other vegetables were in Kyiv (28.5%) and Kherson (19.4%) regions, where a total of 47.9% of the capacities were located. At present, most enterprises in the Kherson region have stopped working, so the Kyiv region’s share has increased. This situation also strengthens seasonality's influence and contributes to its price increase. After all, in the absence of opportunities to store products of Ukrainian production, demand is met by imports, which come in at higher prices. Accordingly, in 2024 we can expect price dynamics for vegetables at 60-70% before the start of the new harvest.
90 UKRAINE Country Report February 2024 www.intellinews.com