European Bank EBRD to boost investment in Ukraine's agriculture

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will increase its investment in Ukraine's agricultural sector to about 218 million U.S. dollars this year.

The amount of the investment represents a rise of 12.5 percent from that of last year, said Anton Usov, the London-based EBRD's senior advisor for external affairs, in an interview published Wednesday in the "Agropolit" newspaper.

"The agricultural sector is now the most attractive and the most successful sphere for us. In 2015, we implemented most of the agricultural projects that we have planned," Usov was quoted as saying.

According to him, apart from investing into Ukrainian big agriculture businesses, the EBRD will this year channel more funds to medium-sized farming enterprises to help them to go through the financial crisis that has gripped the country.

Currently, the EBRD is in talks with five Ukrainian medium-sized agricultural enterprises on the possible funding, Usov said, adding that each company has the prospects to receive up to 10.9 million dollars from the bank.

According to Ukraine's Agriculture Ministry, the country's farming sector attracted 1 billion dollars of foreign investment last year, of which, about 190 million U.S. dollars came from the EBRD. Enditem