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Ministry: Ukraine's farmers received over $1 billion in loans in 2023

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Ministry: Ukraine's farmers received over $1 billion in loans in 2023
Unsold rye and corn grain on the farm of a member of the AgroUnia union in Sedziejowo, Poland, on April 17, 2023. (Bartek Sadowski/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Over 7,600 Ukrainian agricultural enterprises received a collective 38 billion Hr. ($1 billion) in loans for development support since the beginning of 2023, the Agriculture Ministry said on June 21.

Of this number, 6,000 companies received a joint 22.5 billion Hr. ($600 million) under the "Affordable Loans 5-7-9" program, which was launched to "stimulate economic revival and employment of residents and internationally displaced persons" in 2020.

The highest loans under various programs went to farmers in Kyiv ($210 million), Vinnytsia ($110 million), Dnipropetrovsk ($84 million), Kirovohrad ($79 million), and Odesa ($70 million) oblasts.

Ukraine's agriculture suffered heavily due to the effects of the Russian invasion. Moscow repeatedly threatened to block grain exports through the Black Sea corridor, while surplus exports to Europe led to the EU banning some of Ukraine's agricultural products.

Russian forces have also been reportedly stealing Ukraine's grain and shipping it to Russia.

Most recently, the Kakhovka dam destruction resulted in the flooding of 10,000 hectares of arable land and over $4 billion of damage to irrigation infrastructure.

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Martin Fornusek

Senior News Editor

Martin Fornusek is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. He has previously worked as a news content editor at the media company Newsmatics and is a contributor to Euromaidan Press. He was also volunteering as an editor and translator at the Czech-language version of Ukraïner. Martin studied at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia, holding a bachelor's degree in security studies and history and a master's degree in conflict and democracy studies.

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