Ukraine imported 16% of the French seeds in Jan-Apr

In January-April 2018, Ukraine imported seeds from France for the amount of USD 57.3 million or 16.3% of the total volume of imports. This is reported by Alexander Zakharchuk, the Head of Investment and Logistics Department of NSC Institute of Agrarian Economy.

According to him, over 55% of the produced seeds are exported to the EU, North Africa, and Ukraine.

France is the world leader of seed exports exceeding the US and the Netherlands.

On average, France earns about EUR 4 billion in seed production. At the same time, the export earnings stand at EUR 1.5 billion.

It is noted that a favourable climate allows producing 60 kinds of seeds of crops on a total area of about 400 thou. hectares.

10-15% of the industry turnover, which is about EUR 400 million a year, is constantly allocated for innovation, the scientist emphasized.

"Ukraine also has a huge potential to increase the export of quality seed. We are talking about the realization of seeds of such crops as wheat, barley, oats, rye and corn, as well as oilseeds — sunflower, soy, mustard and rapeseed," said Alexander Zakharchuk.

Reference: in the first half of 2018, Ukraine imported agricultural products worth of USD 2.6 billion, which is USD 0.5 billion more (+ 23%) than in the first six months of the year 2017.