In the two past months the European Commission has proposed two legislative initiative packages, notably the Carbon farming initiative and the Soil strategy. The former is about creating a remunerative system for farmers to incentivise the stock of carbon into soil, borrowing the logic of the ETS system already into place; while the former is […]
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Our Work - 16 December 2024
Impact of EU enlargement to Ukraine on the cereal sector
As part of the process of enlarging the European Union to include Ukraine, Farm Europe has analysed both the weight and comparative competitiveness of Ukraine’s main crop sectors compared to those of the European Union.
The difference in competitiveness ranges from 19% to 39% depending on the sector, with structural factors accounting for most of the difference. To this must be added the ‘carbon’ competitiveness conferred by the natural richness of Ukraine’s soils.
At a time when the steps and conditions of accession are about to be drawn up and the pre-accession programmes defined and launched, we feel it is important that objective data can serve as a basis to define the European Union’s roadmap, without bias or avoidance.
Ukraine & European Union: key figures for the cereal sector
Cereal production is not as dominated by large farming structures as the sugar sector: 51% of production is carried out by structures of less than 1,000 ha. It should be noted, however, that 22% of production is carried out by companies with more than 3,000 ha.
If Ukraine were to join the European Union, the country would account for 20% of European cereals production, with 49% of maize production and 15% of wheat production.
Ukrainian cereal production costs are on average 30% lower than those in Europe.
For these reasons, grain imports from Ukraine have doubled between 2019/21 and 2023. The European Union has become a pillar of support for the Ukrainian economy, accounting for 51% of wheat exports in 2023, compared to 30% in 2021.
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Written by Farm Europe