The owners of the lease on the land, have appointed a Ukraine-based farm management company to oversee the operations and cultivation of the land. The farm management company responsibilities:
1. Provide onsite farm management including crop inputs i.e seed, fertiliser and chemicals
2. Conduct frequent site visits with agronomists to monitor the field
3. Emphasise soil conservation using both till and no-till equipment
4. Ensure profitable and timely sales whilst maintaining good agricultural practises and attention to detail
Key Strategies:
1. Improve productivity and yield – restructure the farming activity, implement best practices, modern technology and innovation, and invest in modern equipment and inputs
2. Control grain storage facilities – this is a key success factor for increasing flexibility in pricing, which allows the company to bypass middlemen and sell directly to traders or end users
3. Centralise key process and control – improve margins for centralising procurement and sales, leverage buying power and efficiencies, and improve control and cash management.
The Team
Consists of highly experienced managers and advisors in the agricultural industry in Ukraine. The organisation’s key advisors include:
A Chief Executive Officer with more than 30 years of “hands-on” farm management experience. He has spent the past 18 years farming in several Eastern Europe countries and was the team leader of a large EU project to develop supply chains in Ukraine. Currently, holds senior management positions in large-scale farming operations in Ukraine and prior to this, he was an advisor to the Food and Agricultural Organization for the United Nations in Ukraine (2007 to 2008), and a leading policy advisor on land issues for the World Bank, EU and EBRD.
The CEO holds an MSc in Agriculture Economics as well as a postgraduate diploma in Agricultural Development in Farm Business Management from Wye College at the University of London.
The Economic Advisor and Market Analyst plays a key role in advising market trends, forecasts, input costs and sales pricing. Since 1995, he has been the principal and managing director of a leading Ukrainian agricultural economic and market research company that provides research to the agriculture, food and packaging industry, specifically in agrarian policy, grain and oilseed markets, market logistics, fertilisers and crop protection.
The Horticulturist and Agronomist is a career agronomist with over 20 years of experience in large scale farming in Ukraine. His knowledge of local conditions make him an expert on individual farm crop mix, seed choice, fertilisers and herbicides. He received a degree in Agronomy from the Chernigiv Agricultural College in 1977 and received a higher degree in Agronomy at the Ukrainian Agricultural Academy of Kiev in 1982. He is experienced in using modern western farm equipment and has trained numerous machinery operators through the years. During his career, has held management positions in several farming operations throughout Ukraine.
The Farm Machinery Operator and Training Expert is an engineer with extensive experience in farm machinery operations and training. He has trained over 3,500 combine operators, 500 tractor drivers and 280 engineers. Currently the assistant director of the Horolskiy Agro-Industrial College and is one of the experts in agriculture and agricultural mechanisations in Ukraine. From 2002 to 2005, was the team leader on a Ukrainian-German project which focussed on exchange programmes and training methods for Ukrainian farmers with a view to bringing EU agricultural standards to Ukraine. He holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Ukraine Polytechnic University inKharkiv.