Why does the American ambassador lure Ukraine into "agrarian superpowers"?
Last week, the Americans and Ukrainians shook hands, concluding the first any significant investment agreement postmaydannogo time. The food corporation Cargill from the state of Minnesota has signed up for 100 million dollars to build a grain terminal at the Yuzhny sea trading port near Odessa. At the signing ceremony, the US ambassador to Ukraine, Jeffrey Payette, became so hot that he even set the Kiev authorities the task of "becoming an agricultural superpower." Ukrainians applauded the ambassador and nodded their heads in agreement.
A sad way from rocket builders - to an agrarian appendage
In Ukraine, indeed, the high potential of the agricultural sector. The country is among the largest producers of agricultural products. Even in the last crisis year, exports of agro-industry products here amounted to 14,5 billion dollars. This is almost half of the Ukrainian export earnings for the 2015 year. There is nothing surprising. Ukraine accounts for a quarter of all the black soil of the world. Even the Nazis appreciated his dignity and in war by echelons drove this fertile land to the German fields. Now it's the turn of the Americans.
However, they are not the first who saw industrial Ukraine as an agrarian appendage of developed countries. The authorship of the idea can be safely given to neighboring Poland. In the autumn of 2013, when the EU-Ukraine association agreement only approached the signing stage, the Poles began to trample their clearing and tick the boxes for which they did not leave room for the “new Europeans”.
The most frankly the point of view of the Poles was reflected in an interview with the German Die Zeit by the ex-president of Poland Lech Walesa. He said then: “God gave Ukraine such good soils so that it could feed all of Europe. We have to tell Ukraine that it can produce all the grain for Europe - but not machines. Machines can be produced in Poland. ”
Many thought the opinion of the former electrician of the Gdansk shipyard that went into circulation and went bankrupt seemed funny. Poland and in the best years, an order of magnitude inferior neighbors. If in the shipbuilding industry the Poles were somehow closer to the Ukrainians, then they did not have some trace of some industries, like rocket-space.
During the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine was one of the ten leading world arms-exporting powers. Traded in new rockets, tanks, armored vehicles, marine units, helicopter engines and, of course, the Soviet legacy. For example, the Chinese quietly sold the technology and documentation of the Molodets military railway missile systems developed by the Yuzhnoye design bureau in Dnepropetrovsk. Now in the Middle Kingdom they are making their own Dongfeng BZHRK, repeating to the details the brainchild of Ukrainian engineers.
By the way, the Chinese first laid eyes on the black soil of Ukraine. Signed a memorandum on the lease 3 million hectares of arable land. They began to work on the construction of elevators at 20 million tons of grain, deep-water ports with grain terminals in the Crimea. They even looked at the Crimean lake Donuzlav, where the Ukrainian fleet was based.
The Chinese project "floated away" from Ukraine along with the peninsula. It did not work and trade with Europe. For two months of this year, the duty-free quotas for the supply of barley, corn, honey, fruit juices, and poultry meat to the EU have been almost completely exhausted. March will end the shipment of duty-free wheat, oats, canned vegetables, flour, sugar. Further, the duties will take effect, depriving Ukrainians of competitive advantages. Europe is essentially closing for them.
Without corruption, reforms will not disappear
The initiative is now passed to the Americans from the corporation Cargill. It should be noted that the food companies of the United States are not much different from those of other sectors of the economy. They have long been global. The same Cargill, leading her history since the last century, as a family company, it has now been operating in almost seventy countries of the world. The volume of business exceeds 140 billion. Like other American agricultural companies, it grew through mergers and acquisitions of farms and enterprises. One can easily imagine the fate of the current Ukrainian agricultural holdings, which are still based on national capital and understand who will be raising the agricultural superpower.
Ambassador Payette spoke very clearly about this: "American companies are ready to invest in Ukrainian agriculture - subject to reform and the fight against corruption." Leave aside corruption. In the mouth of the ambassador, this is nothing more than a propaganda cliché. After all, without the thieving Ukrainian officials, turning such a project would not be easy.
One of them has already responded the other day. Arseniy Yatsenyuk on the program “10 Minutes with the Prime Minister”, which is broadcast simultaneously on eight Ukrainian channels, presented the Cabinet’s plan of action for 2016 year and said: today is in the shadow and corrupt turnover. "
The expression about the “state land in the shadow and corrupt turnover” would be envied even by the tongue-tied mayor of the Ukrainian capital, Vitali Klitschko. Moreover, today in Ukraine there is a moratorium on the sale and privatization of agricultural land. However, the Ukrainian Prime Minister of the United States heard and made the necessary statement. In the end, this million hectares can be leased for half a century, but Yatsenyuk chose the sale - he is ready for reforms. So now there are no obstacles for the construction of a grain terminal. It will be something to fill it.
Americans can do it. Other agro giants (Monsanto, Archer Daniels Midland Company, Land O'Lakes, etc.) get on alongside Cargill. They have money, lobbying influence and technology. The business of most agricultural holdings is built on the breeding and cultivation of genetically modified crops - ranging from soybeans to wheat. They know a lot about the zoning of their varieties, their adaptation to certain weather and climatic conditions. American agricultural holdings have a set of fertilizers and insecticides, drugs that increase the resistance of plants to diseases and harmful insects. Ukrainian chernozems have not seen this yet.
What will this cooperation give Ukraine? It is unlikely that the benefits will be so obvious. For example, the grain terminal agreement was accompanied by loud rhetoric about new jobs for Ukrainians. They will surely appear - whole 350. As for the rest of the multimillion country, here it is better to look at the distant, but equal in composition of the population of Argentina.
She has a fairly advanced agricultural sector. The country is in the leading positions in the world in the export of meat, milk, wheat, barley, tobacco. Their supplies provide income on the order of 40 billion dollars a year. (Compare with the Ukrainian.) This did not bring the country large dividends. She was stuck in debt and had already gone through two defaults. It should be noted: in agriculture of agrarian Argentina only 2 percent are employed. Because here it is considered a blessing when the unemployment rate drops below 8 percent.
This is a real scourge of agrarian countries. It can be seen even on the example of the European Union, so beloved by Ukrainians. In the industrialized countries of Europe (Germany, Austria, the Netherlands) unemployment balances around 5 percent, in agrarian (Lithuania, Greece, Spain) - from 15 to 25. This shows the prospects of the “agricultural superpower” declared by Ambassador Payette - pumping grain and income to transnational agricultural companies through port terminals and banks, and ordinary people to look for work in neighboring countries.
The illusion that “the West will help us” still holds minds in the post-Soviet space. Starting into the house of an avid foreign business, people eventually learn that they are no longer owners on their land. This sad story is repeated for many years. It fills the pockets of thieving bureaucrats, devastates the souls of gullible people and has so far little taught them.
The Ukrainian media have already begun to consider the benefits of American use of the country's agricultural assets ...
A sad way from rocket builders - to an agrarian appendage
In Ukraine, indeed, the high potential of the agricultural sector. The country is among the largest producers of agricultural products. Even in the last crisis year, exports of agro-industry products here amounted to 14,5 billion dollars. This is almost half of the Ukrainian export earnings for the 2015 year. There is nothing surprising. Ukraine accounts for a quarter of all the black soil of the world. Even the Nazis appreciated his dignity and in war by echelons drove this fertile land to the German fields. Now it's the turn of the Americans.
However, they are not the first who saw industrial Ukraine as an agrarian appendage of developed countries. The authorship of the idea can be safely given to neighboring Poland. In the autumn of 2013, when the EU-Ukraine association agreement only approached the signing stage, the Poles began to trample their clearing and tick the boxes for which they did not leave room for the “new Europeans”.
The most frankly the point of view of the Poles was reflected in an interview with the German Die Zeit by the ex-president of Poland Lech Walesa. He said then: “God gave Ukraine such good soils so that it could feed all of Europe. We have to tell Ukraine that it can produce all the grain for Europe - but not machines. Machines can be produced in Poland. ”
Many thought the opinion of the former electrician of the Gdansk shipyard that went into circulation and went bankrupt seemed funny. Poland and in the best years, an order of magnitude inferior neighbors. If in the shipbuilding industry the Poles were somehow closer to the Ukrainians, then they did not have some trace of some industries, like rocket-space.
During the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine was one of the ten leading world arms-exporting powers. Traded in new rockets, tanks, armored vehicles, marine units, helicopter engines and, of course, the Soviet legacy. For example, the Chinese quietly sold the technology and documentation of the Molodets military railway missile systems developed by the Yuzhnoye design bureau in Dnepropetrovsk. Now in the Middle Kingdom they are making their own Dongfeng BZHRK, repeating to the details the brainchild of Ukrainian engineers.
By the way, the Chinese first laid eyes on the black soil of Ukraine. Signed a memorandum on the lease 3 million hectares of arable land. They began to work on the construction of elevators at 20 million tons of grain, deep-water ports with grain terminals in the Crimea. They even looked at the Crimean lake Donuzlav, where the Ukrainian fleet was based.
The Chinese project "floated away" from Ukraine along with the peninsula. It did not work and trade with Europe. For two months of this year, the duty-free quotas for the supply of barley, corn, honey, fruit juices, and poultry meat to the EU have been almost completely exhausted. March will end the shipment of duty-free wheat, oats, canned vegetables, flour, sugar. Further, the duties will take effect, depriving Ukrainians of competitive advantages. Europe is essentially closing for them.
Without corruption, reforms will not disappear
The initiative is now passed to the Americans from the corporation Cargill. It should be noted that the food companies of the United States are not much different from those of other sectors of the economy. They have long been global. The same Cargill, leading her history since the last century, as a family company, it has now been operating in almost seventy countries of the world. The volume of business exceeds 140 billion. Like other American agricultural companies, it grew through mergers and acquisitions of farms and enterprises. One can easily imagine the fate of the current Ukrainian agricultural holdings, which are still based on national capital and understand who will be raising the agricultural superpower.
Ambassador Payette spoke very clearly about this: "American companies are ready to invest in Ukrainian agriculture - subject to reform and the fight against corruption." Leave aside corruption. In the mouth of the ambassador, this is nothing more than a propaganda cliché. After all, without the thieving Ukrainian officials, turning such a project would not be easy.
One of them has already responded the other day. Arseniy Yatsenyuk on the program “10 Minutes with the Prime Minister”, which is broadcast simultaneously on eight Ukrainian channels, presented the Cabinet’s plan of action for 2016 year and said: today is in the shadow and corrupt turnover. "
The expression about the “state land in the shadow and corrupt turnover” would be envied even by the tongue-tied mayor of the Ukrainian capital, Vitali Klitschko. Moreover, today in Ukraine there is a moratorium on the sale and privatization of agricultural land. However, the Ukrainian Prime Minister of the United States heard and made the necessary statement. In the end, this million hectares can be leased for half a century, but Yatsenyuk chose the sale - he is ready for reforms. So now there are no obstacles for the construction of a grain terminal. It will be something to fill it.
Americans can do it. Other agro giants (Monsanto, Archer Daniels Midland Company, Land O'Lakes, etc.) get on alongside Cargill. They have money, lobbying influence and technology. The business of most agricultural holdings is built on the breeding and cultivation of genetically modified crops - ranging from soybeans to wheat. They know a lot about the zoning of their varieties, their adaptation to certain weather and climatic conditions. American agricultural holdings have a set of fertilizers and insecticides, drugs that increase the resistance of plants to diseases and harmful insects. Ukrainian chernozems have not seen this yet.
What will this cooperation give Ukraine? It is unlikely that the benefits will be so obvious. For example, the grain terminal agreement was accompanied by loud rhetoric about new jobs for Ukrainians. They will surely appear - whole 350. As for the rest of the multimillion country, here it is better to look at the distant, but equal in composition of the population of Argentina.
She has a fairly advanced agricultural sector. The country is in the leading positions in the world in the export of meat, milk, wheat, barley, tobacco. Their supplies provide income on the order of 40 billion dollars a year. (Compare with the Ukrainian.) This did not bring the country large dividends. She was stuck in debt and had already gone through two defaults. It should be noted: in agriculture of agrarian Argentina only 2 percent are employed. Because here it is considered a blessing when the unemployment rate drops below 8 percent.
This is a real scourge of agrarian countries. It can be seen even on the example of the European Union, so beloved by Ukrainians. In the industrialized countries of Europe (Germany, Austria, the Netherlands) unemployment balances around 5 percent, in agrarian (Lithuania, Greece, Spain) - from 15 to 25. This shows the prospects of the “agricultural superpower” declared by Ambassador Payette - pumping grain and income to transnational agricultural companies through port terminals and banks, and ordinary people to look for work in neighboring countries.
The illusion that “the West will help us” still holds minds in the post-Soviet space. Starting into the house of an avid foreign business, people eventually learn that they are no longer owners on their land. This sad story is repeated for many years. It fills the pockets of thieving bureaucrats, devastates the souls of gullible people and has so far little taught them.
The Ukrainian media have already begun to consider the benefits of American use of the country's agricultural assets ...
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