“Development of processing facilities and export hubs on the EU border” – that’s what we heard during the government’s program presentation. It sounds promising. But in reality, it remains a very general direction. What exactly should be processed? How should it be marketed? Farmers need more concrete answers.

An analysis of the EU’s strategy to achieve food security, an objective identification of the bottlenecks in cooperation between Ukrainian and European farmers, and a dialogue with Ukrainian agribusiness about real needs and problem-solving pathways – none of this will happen on its own.

Together with agricultural companies and industry associations, the Ukraine Facility Platform (UAFP) has started searching for answers to these questions.

Step 1 – Analysis of European strategies. 

UAFP’s Agriculture Sector Lead, Olga Trofimtseva, covers this in a new analytical report “Global Competitiveness and Strategic Autonomy of the EU and Ukraine through Cooperation in the Agri-Food Sector.”

Read the report here.

Step 2 – What does Ukrainian business think? 

Here are some early insights from a discussion UAFP held last week:

  • Ukraine needs a balanced export strategy with a well-designed selection of target markets. If the strategic goal is to expand processing, the first step is to identify which processed products Europe actually demands.
  • Europe faces two critical challenges on the way to strategic autonomy: energy and proteins. Ukraine can help with both. Therefore, cooperation with European agribusiness is most effective in the joint development of innovative agricultural sectors: protein concentrates, dual-use technologies, bioenergy, as well as BioTech and AgroTech industries.
  • In the pursuit of independence from protein imports from China and other Asian countries, Ukraine will struggle to compete on price. But its strength lies in competing on values – from carbon-neutral products to alignment with European climate and agricultural policies.

Step 3 – Turning these advantages into real projects. UAFP is developing a set of mechanisms – the Collaborative Investment Toolkit – to deepen cooperation between Ukrainian and European farmers.

The Toolkit includes:

  • working with international financial institutions to insure war-related risks for agri-projects,
  • cooperating with EU and Ukrainian governments to create a “single investment window” with transparent fast-track procedures,
  • recommendations on granting Ukraine early access to EU technical and financial support instruments in agriculture (such as IPARD),
  • developing regional innovation clusters in bioenergy, protein processing, and AgTech.

The mechanisms we are building together with business aim to reduce risks for investors and channel funding into strategic sectors that generate high added value while matching EU priorities in climate neutrality, energy security, and food resilience.

Interested in joining the effort? Send your proposals to info@uafp.eu