At the end of February Ukraine was visited by the delegation of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan in order to carry on negotiations as to prospects for agricultural cooperation between our countries. Within their visit the Japanese experts have met with the representatives of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, agricultural associations and companies. The delegation included Masamitsu Nakaizumi, the director of international trade policy issues of the international cooperation department, Bunichi Kimura, the deputy director of the food security department, Kenichi Tanimoto, the researcher of the economic security department. At present trade and economic relations between Japan and Ukraine are developed rapidly. In particular, for the last years the country of the rising sun has increased the share of grain import from Ukraine, including corn. NIBULON plays a significant role in it: for example, last marketing year the company delivered corn to this country for the first time (in compliance with the US quality standards) having added this crop to the list of Japanese import alongside with wheat and barley. During their visit to Ukraine the Japanese specialists visited the transshipment terminal of “Pereyaslavs’ka” branch (Kyiv region) on February 28. Speaking about the goals of their visit, the Japanese specialists described NIBULON as a well-known leader of the agro-industrial complex of Ukraine that develops quickly and invests in the infrastructure development for processing, storage and transportation of grain. Familiarizing themselves with the terminal, the foreign specialists visited the laboratory where they watched the process of samples taking, they became familiar with the process of grain taking, its drying and cleaning. The terminal’s technological level, its equipment impressed the guests – they became familiar with operation of dryers, truck-tipper having paid particular attention to their ecological compatibility. They were inside grain storages. Being interested in the history of the terminal construction, Masamitsu Nakaizumi was impressed having found out that all necessary documents had been drawn about a year and the facility had been built within 3 (!) months. The delegation was also impressed by a high level of professionalism of the branch employees. The guests became interested in education and qualification of the personnel as, according to them, an up-to-date computer is capable of nothing without a trained operator. The guests were surprised at finding out that every year all the workers undergo refresher training, including abroad. The Japanese guests were told about creation of NIBULON’s own fleet, about its possibilities and purpose. During the visit the guests have met with Oleksandr Hohlov, the deputy general director of quality assurance and product storage. They discussed a number of questions concerning GMO problems in the Ukrainian agrarian market, plans and NIBULON’s forecasts for the current agricultural season, quality and conditions of agricultural commodity storage in the company. By the way, NIBULON’s specialists were impressed by the fact that in Japan not only the country but also public organizations perform quality control of agricultural products. Upon completing the meeting the participants made photos and exchange presents. The meeting testified that Japan’s experts wanted to see the real situation in the Ukrainian grain market and to know NIBULON better as a reliable Ukrainian partner. Japan is one of the world economic leaders, importers and our company has a lot to propose. Now the country with the limited natural resources is interested in the Ukrainian agriculture considering our country to be an alternative for import of ecological grain.
