On February 16, 2012 Kyiv hosted the III International Conference «Commercial Fruit and Vegetable Farming in Ukraine 2012». The event was organized by the Ukrainian Club of Agrarian Business and supported by the Kingdom of the Netherlands Embassy in Ukraine.

The conference brought together major Ukrainian and foreign producers of horticultural products, traders, representatives of logistics companies and retailers, seed producers, research and financial institutions, industrial associations, analysts, technical and legal experts and government representatives.

Natalia Dotsenko-Belous, a senior associate with VKP's Real Estate and Construction Practice, represented the firm at the event.

In 2011 there was a record increase in the production of fruits, vegetables and cucurbits crop. All together there were 36 million tonnes produced, while the volume of purchases equalled to 3.4 million US dollars.

During the conference, experts agreed that the development and regulation of the market are strategically important for economic stability and food supply security in the country. The event participants discussed key factors in the development of horticulture and gardening, the financing of this sector, development trends of small and medium enterprises, they also reviewed the European experience and the latest approaches to managing the production of fruits and vegetables.

In her presentation Natalia Dotsenko-Belous focused on how various issues relating to ownership, leasing and disposition of various types of land, including agricultural land, impact the agribusiness. "On the threshold of the fundamental change in the regulation of land relations and land reform Ukrainian agricultural producers are facing a major problem - the lack of stability with respect to land rights" - said Natalia. According to Mrs Dotsenko-Belous, in Ukraine there are at least five legal grounds for involuntary termination of land titles, not including the methods of termination of these rights in court. Therefore landowners need to be very careful with regard to registration and use of their land titles.

Speaking of the current statutory regulation of land relations, as well as the rules outlined ​​in the draft law "On Land" Natalia stressed a number of limitations on operations with land, namely:

  • A ban on the acquisition and alienation of land by foreigners, legal persons, stateless persons;
  • The prohibition on conveyance or transfer of agricultural land from the communal state property (does not apply to the privatization of land by individuals within the allocation of shares);
  • The prohibition on conveyance or transfer of commercial farming land and individual farms;
  • Restrictions on the amount of plots that can be privately owned (up to 100 hectares). At the same time there are no limitations on plots that may be in the lease.

All of the above provisions, according to Natalia, give ground for manipulation and allow for the shadow land market in Ukraine to strive.

According to Mrs Dotsenko-Belous, some of the expected changes include a partial lifting of the moratorium on the conveyance or transfer of agricultural lands to non-residents (in particular, land for horticulture), expanding the circle of persons who may lease agricultural land, limiting the area of land for rent, as well as a ban on the change of purpose of agricultural land.

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For more details please contact Tatyana Efremova,

Head of PR/BD Department

Tel.: +380 44 581 7777

E-mail: pr@vkp.kiev.ua

About the Firm

Established in 1992, Vasil Kisil & Partners is a Ukrainian law firm that delivers integrated legal advice in banking & finance, mergers & acquisitions, capital markets, antitrust, competition and trade, dispute resolution, tax law, energy and natural resources law, intellectual property law, labor and employment law, real estate and construction law, as well as PPP, concessions and infrastructure law.

The firm`s clients include such world-known companies as Alpcot Agro, Africa-Israel Group, Astellas Pharma, BASF, Bayer Consumer, BNP Paribas, British American Tobacco, Central European Media Enterprises, Coca Cola, Credit Agricole Group, Danone, Dell Inc., Du Pont, Energy Standard Group, Eurosport, Google, IKB Deutsche Industriebank, LG Electronics, Leroy Merlin Ukraine, Lukoil, Metso Automation Oy, Moody’s, Mott MacDonald Limited, NCH Capital, Novacke chemicke zavody, Opel, Philips, Pioneer, Red Bull, Russian Standard Bank, St. Sophia Homes, SEB AB, SEB Group, Swedbank AB, Seven Hills, Shell, Standard Charted Bank, Tchibo, UniCredit Group, Vanco International / Vanco Energy, Volkswagen, VympelCom, YouTube.