According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), by 2050 the world’s population is likely to exceed 9 billion; it will result in an increase in global demand for agricultural products by 50 %, as compared to the current level. With this in mind, the role of the agrarian sector in overcoming the global food crisis will only increase, and investment in agriculture and the logistics development will be an important condition for sustainable development.
During a strategic session “World Food Day: Reaching Zero Hunger as a Sustainable Development Goal by 2030” as part of the 8th International Agro-Industrial Exhibition and Forum for the Development of Farming “AGOPORT South Kherson 2018”, Hero of Ukraine, NIBULON’s General Director Oleksiy Vadaturskyy told about the tasks Ukrainian agrarian sector is facing in overcoming these global threats for humanity.
“Twenty thousand inhabitants of our planet die every day because of lack of food. And in order to feed the population by 2030, additional 150 million ha of land is needed for the production of bread; it is necessary to produce more than 200 million tons of meat products”, said Oleksiy Vadaturskyy. Being a head of the company that cooperates with 65 countries, I know firsthand that this is a real and very serious problem. In this regard Ukraine is a country that can provide additional potential for agricultural commodities production in order to solve the problem of hunger. Today the whole world looks at Ukraine, which has all the opportunities for growing more agricultural commodities”.
An important event on the issue of preserving world food security was the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (December 6, 2017, Cairo) between FAO, whose main task is to end hunger, and NIBULON. The aim of the Memorandum is to improve food security in Egypt and the efficiency of Egyptian companies involved in grain production, storage and transportation.
“When our cooperation in Egypt began, the government of Egypt came up with a name for the program Oleksiy Vadaturskyy has started to implement – “Save the national bread of Egypt – baladi”, said a moderator of this session, coordinator of the FAO development program in Ukraine Mykhailo Malkov. “NIBULON is doing in Egypt a real contribution to the food security and sustainable development of both Ukraine and Egypt through the development of logistics, reducing the load on roads. When foreigners are asked about the agrarian sector of Ukraine, the first thing they mention is NIBULON. This is a unique company that has no equals in terms of development level. This is a company that makes the goals of sustainable development really closer”.
In Egypt, FAO is engaged in solving urgent issues related to the development of the infrastructure for grain preservation. According to this organization, food losses in Egypt are up to 20 %.
“Every year the population of Egypt grows by a million people. Every year this country reclaims a hectare of land from the desert in order to grow wheat (three times more expensive than the Ukrainian wheat) to feed its population. Therefore, our company was involved in order to transfer its own successful experience in developing the infrastructure that we have gained in Ukraine. We are ready to implement an investment project that will include modernizing the existing elevators in Egypt, construction of new ones, as well as construction of a fleet at Egypt’s shipbuilding yards in order to transport grain along the Nile River and its distributaries and ensure food security in Egypt. I am asked if there is no need to invest in Ukraine. I answer that NIBULON doesn’t stop its investment program in Ukraine. We will continue to invest in the Ukrainian economy and increase the investment volumes. At the same time, we will win the markets for Ukrainian farmers. We are doing everything to bring farmers from Kherson region and other regions of Ukraine together with processors and consumers of agricultural products. Egypt is the third country in the world to consume food. Implementation of this program will increase the competitiveness of agricultural products of Ukrainian commodity producers and will allow one to sale agricultural products directly to end consumers in Egypt, which, in turn, will increase the food security of both Egypt and Ukraine. Due to this, Ukrainian agricultural producers will be able to invest more in the agrarian sector, to achieve higher efficiency of cultivating agricultural products, and to increase competitive advantages. This is our goal and our philosophy of doing business. As part of the implementation of our investment project in Ukraine, NIBULON has already constructed 25 enterprises and changed the logistics map of Ukraine in order to minimize traffic by road transport. We transport 2.5 million tons of cargoes per year by rivers. We plan to transport 4 million tons per year in the near future. In this way, we will save more than UAH 3 billion for road repairs, we will switch to a more environmentally friendly mode of transport, thereby reducing the impact on the environment. We will reduce the economic burden for agricultural producers, who will be able to free significant funds by investing them in the production of agricultural commodities, which will become more competitive. We plan to construct one more transshipment terminal in Kherson region. Upon implementing our strategic plans for the development of the logistics system on the Dnipro River and the construction of our transshipment terminal in Marianske (Dnipropetrovsk region), grain will not be delivered by road transport from Dnipropetrovsk region to our transshipment terminal in Kozatske, and your roads will be freed from trucks”, said Oleksiy Vadaturskyy.
Oleksiy Vadaturskyy drew attention of the audience to the fact that Kherson region grows 2.7 million tons of grain per year, while its real potential is 10 million tons,
“This goal can be achieved if you use modern agricultural machinery, modern irrigation system, modern crop cultivation technologies. If favourable investment climate is created and investments are attracted, the potential of our country is to increase production volumes at least twice. It is 100-150 million tons per year. This is precisely the potential that the world needs today in the fight against hunger”.
Speaking about the potential of Ukraine to increase the production of agricultural commodities, Oleksiy Vadaturskyy gave an example of Australia – a country that has been a major supplier of products to the countries of Indochina for a long time.  Due to change in climatic conditions, this country loses its volumes of grain production. Representatives of Australian agrarian sector regularly visit NIBULON’s facilities in order to adopt Ukrainian experience.
He also noted that NIBULON cooperated with the United Nations in the framework of the World Food Program (WFP), as it was capable of providing high-quality products and withstanding all contractual conditions, “I want to emphasize that within this program we are supplying agricultural products of higher quality than we consume in Ukraine. Therefore, the Ukrainian agrarian sector needs to grow its products, including wheat, of very high quality in order to increase its markets and to consume bread of the highest quality. Only then you will be able to receive the best price; you will be able to compete and to participate in any tenders, to succeed in the economy, and Ukrainians will eat bread that will not harm their health”.
General Director of NIBULON also expressed his gratitude to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, heads of cities and regional administrations for their consistent support, willingness and readiness to change the logistics of Ukraine and to improve the efficiency of agricultural commodities delivery,
“I would like to thank Andrii Hordieiev, head of Kherson Regional State Administration, for supporting our investment project in Kherson region. One year is needed for large investments in Kherson region in order to implement an idea. By and large, it is an inaccessible bar for many regions of Ukraine and for a bureaucratic machine of the country as whole”.

Annex 1. The main ways to overcome the global food crisis over the next 30 years:
– to increase the area of ​​agricultural land by 105 million ha (35 million ha will be withdrawn from cultivation as a result of global warming, i.e. an actual increase is by 70 million ha);
– to increase the production of grain by 1 billion tons (from 1.5 billion tons to 2.5 billion tons);
– to increase the production of meat by 200 million tons (from 270 to 450 million tons);
– to increase the production of milk by 300 million tons (from 550 to 850 million tons);
– to invest more than USD 7 trillion in agriculture (about USD 70 billion annually was invested in 2004-2009; it is necessary to invest about USD 210 billion annually).

Annex 2. The urgent problems of mankind:
By 2050, the population of our planet will exceed 9.1 billion people.
By 2030, more than 2.5 billion people on the planet will suffer from hunger.
In 30 years, mankind needs to increase the production of food by 70% in order to survive.
According to FAO, only a few countries in the world are capable of increasing their food production on the fast-track basis, namely Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Argentina, and Russia.