OREANDA-NEWS. January 14, 2016. “The year of 2015 has been a challenging one for farmers due to adverse economic and natural climatic conditions. Nevertheless, even in such a harsh environment, the agricultural sector has become the engine of Ukraine’s economy”, Oleksii Pavlenko, the Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, noted in his piece for the Internet-periodical “Ekonomichna Pravda”.

The key to stability and development of the domestic agricultural industry is the diversification of markets, Oleksii Pavlenko believes. Against the background of unfriendly policy waged by the traditional partners, this issue becomes the priority one.

“Under the current conditions, the geographical diversification of agricultural exports, shifting to the new markets, the modernization of production are not a mere forced necessity, this is the only option for the development and prosperity of Ukraine’s agriculture,” Oleksii Pavlenko particularly noted.

The Minister reminded that, starting from January 1st, 2016, Russia prohibited the import of certain agricultural products, raw materials and food from Ukraine. However, the Minister believes that the closed Russian market will not have a disastrous effect on the Ukrainian agriculture.

The trade embargo will be applied to meat and meat products, fish, dairy products, vegetables, fruits and nuts, and pastries. In the total export of agricultural products, which for the recent 10 months has amounted to \\$11.6 billion, while the share of the “forbidden items of agricultural products to the Russian Federation” accounts for only 1%.

“The current volume of agricultural export to Russia accounts for no more than 2% of the total agricultural exports of Ukraine. Of course, any losses are undesirable, but this can hardly be called a disaster. The consumers of Ukrainian products in Russia will be more affected,” the Minister added.

According to Oleksii Pavlenko, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy was ready to such a situation and promptly took steps to open new markets for Ukrainian products. Today, China, India, and some other countries have driven the Russian Federation out of the list of Top 10 importers of Ukrainian products.

“Holding on to the Russian market is a harmful direction for the entire economy of Ukraine. This choice has no future. Our future is linked to the European and the world standards of quality, food safety, modernization of production and of the entire agricultural sector,” Minister Oleksii Pavlenko concluded.