In the society, there is no unique attitude to the question whether Ukraine needs a land market. Therefore, it is possible that the moratorium on the sale of agricultural land may be extended after 2016.

This opinion was expressed by General Director of the Ukrainian Club of Agrarian Business Volodymyr Lapa during a press conference at UKRINFORM on Thursday.

"A quarter of the Ukrainians are against the land market in general. About 40 percent could support it under certain conditions. Therefore the extension of the moratorium is the right decision. The Ukrainian society is not yet ready to take land as commodity, which is why it is possible that the moratorium introduced until 2016 may be extended," the expert said.

According to him, land is the primary means of production in agriculture, and investors working on it want to be confident of the prospects for their work. Rather big investments now coming into the domestic agricultural sector are not comparable to those the agricultural sector could receive in the case of effective settlement of the land question.

Asked by UKRINFORM about his vision regarding the future of the land market, the expert, in particular, says that some of the farmers who are in urgent need of money will sell their land. However, those who are not in a hurry will be able to soberly assess market conditions and hold their plots over a certain period of time. "At the first stage, the price of land will be low, but it will definitely increase in five or seven years, when the market becomes more liberal," Lapa predicts.

Ukrinform