Neither Ukrainian state nor private companies have any intention and rights to sell the land to foreigners, including to the Chinese.

Head of the Ukrainian agroholding KSG Agro Serhiy Kasianov told Ukrinform about this, commenting on information that has appeared in the national press about the alleged plans of the Chinese state corporation Xinjiang Production and Construction to purchase almost 3 million ha of lands from the agroholding in Ukraine.

“This information, mildly speaking, does not reflect reality. The matter does not concern the purchase or even subtenancy, but joint activities,” Kasianov has noted.

He informed that his company and Xinjiang Production and Construction have really signed a protocol of intentions, the framework document, which envisages future cooperation in the sphere of the foodstuffs' production. Its start is planned from the arrangement of drip irrigation systems on the lands rented by KSG Agro (the agroholding possesses 96,000 ha of such lands in Dnipropetrovsk region, Crimea and Kherson).

“Next year, within the frames of this cooperation, such equipment is planned to be installed on 3,000 ha of lands with its gradual increase,” Kasianov noted. He said that the Chinese specialists visited the lands under discussion this summer, heads of the Chinese corporation also made visits to Ukraine.

The agency interlocutor stressed that his project with Chinese partners is only a part of large-scale plans of the government on renewal of the irrigation system (repairs of channels, pumping stations, etc.), which had earlier worked on the areas from 2.5 million ha to 3 million ha, however, by now its effectiveness does not exceed 15%. On the whole, as Ukrinform had earlier reported, this country needs at least USD 10 billion, which it offers for investment to different parties.

The artificial irrigation system will allow considerably rising crop capacity of agricultural crops on those lands, Kasianov notes. According to him, joint work on those lands in the sphere of plant growing and cattle breeding also seems perspective. “This is a good position - development of our pig breeding, providing our citizens with high quality pork,” the KSG head says. At the same time, he stressed that this program is designated primarily for marketing of those products in Ukraine, and in case of the excess, they could be exported to China.

Serhiy Kasianov also paid attention to the fact that nobody made a secret of this project, information about this was presented in its time at TV channels, in the Internet, therefore the current splash in mass media is not understandable, in addition with distortion of facts.


 

ukrinform