This article was selected by the Evropeiska Pravda newspaper, the section of Ukrainska Pravda dealing with aspects of eurointegration, as a winner in the contest of stories from regional journalists. It was originally published in the Cherkasy newspaper Nova Doba.
Food for astronauts
It is well known that the possession and sale of foreign currencies in the former Soviet Union were criminally prosecuted. However, there were those in Cherkasy who dealt in hard currency flows quite legally. The trade cooperative Sozuykoopzovnishtorh, and its representatives in Cherkasy in particular, did so in connection with the agricultural products and medicinal plants they exported to Europe, North Africa, and Japan. Only two regions of Ukraine (Cherkasy and Khmelnitsk) had direct connections with the Soviet export-import trading cooperative Sozuzkoopzovnishtorh — and that was because they provided the largest share of Soviet exports. Cherkasy alone accounted for almost 5% of total exports. ''However, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, Soyuzkoopzovnishtorh disappeared and no one was in a hurry to replace it in Ukraine. So I took the initiative to create a private joint stock company, Koopzovnishtorh, that allowed us to keep and further develop a network of business contacts—and that in the process was providing two hundred jobs,” Anatoliy Pohrebniak told Nova Doba. In Soviet times, the Cherkasy Oblast exported pumpkin seeds, walnuts, chestnuts, fruit and berries, as well as medicinal plants, including Tatar potions and the “plant-parasite,” mistletoe. Five factories in Cherkasy processed those products, and one of them, the Uman experimental cannery, produced food for the first Soviet cosmonauts. Initially, Koopzovnishtorh tried to continue exporting the entire range of Soviet-era products, and by entering the Ukrainian Grain Association, exported sunflowers, wheat, barley, and even fertilizers. But over time it chose to stick with only the most promising and profitable crops. This turned out to be walnuts, also called Greek nuts in Ukrainian -- which actually grow in Ukraine. ‘In 1997,” recalls Pohrebniak, “no one believed that you could amass a collection of nuts in large volumes. We started out small – 18 tons, but quickly increased production up to 600--700 tons per year, and most recently up to one thousand tons.” “Considering that shelled walnuts on the world market are worth $ 3-3.5 per kilogram, this can be a very profitable business, if you successfully develop commercial nut orchards, reduce tax pressures, and remove the corruption component,” he adds.Let’s Go to a Walnut Orchard
Today, Ukraine may not boast serious walnut plantations. Its 2,500 hectares is significantly less than Moldova’s 14,000. And it is far behind the more serious players in the business, such as the USA. As explained by Pohrebniak, “Ukraine is in the top 10 exporters of shelled walnuts. The first three are the USA, Canada and China, followed by Japan, France and Türkiye. Moldova is growing dynamically, which is gradually pushing us from the market. This is very annoying because, without a corresponding governmental policy, Ukraine could very quickly lose its share on the world market.”
