Western Producer reporter Karen Briere travelled to Ukraine and reports on Canada’s role in development programs.
DNIPRODZERZHINSK, Ukraine – Unirem-Agro would fit right in in Saskatchewan.
Its Westeel bins dominate the landscape. New Holland and Bourgault equipment sit idle after the growing season. The land is mostly flat, the soil black and normally a bit dry.
There is even a Canadian flag flying out front.
But this is the region known as Dnipropetrovsk oblast in eastern Ukraine, the second-largest grain-growing area in the country.
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Unirem is a Ukrainian-Canadian joint venture backed by British Columbia investor Ron Derrickson, a former chief of Westbank First Nation.
The company formed as a limited liability corporation in 2001 and grows wheat, sunflowers, rapeseed and other crops on 15,570 acres.
It has expanded into seed growing, processing and storage and sales. It has its own grain testing laboratory and elevator and employs 20 people at the plant and another 50 in crop production.
The 20,000 tonne capacity elevator is clearly the pride and joy of Sergii Vladimirovich, the company’s deputy director. Unirem uses it for its own grain as well as for other farmers as space permits.
In August, it was full of rapeseed, most of which had been sold and shipped through the Black Sea by the end of October.
The sunflower harvest was underway, however, and those seeds were filling up bins.
Vladimirovich said the construction of the elevator was an important milestone as Ukrainian producers move to adopt Canadian technology.
Maxim Maximov, who heads the Facility for Agricultural Reform and Modernization’s (FARM) agricultural extension office in the city of Dnipropetrovsk, which is the capital city of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, said Ukrainian producers have lots to learn about large-scale production.
“We also need some time to develop infrastructure, particularly grain storage,” he said.
The Canadian connections are strong here, largely because of FARM’s work and the Saskatchewan Trade and Export Partnership (STEP), which administers FARM.
Unirem’s director used STEP and FARM’s expertise to visit Canada, find equipment and meet the people he needed to develop his business.
The company originally intended to offer harvesting services with two used combines from Hungary, but Ukrainian land reforms led to ownership by many people who didn’t have the equipment to work it.
Unirem saw an opportunity to rent land.
Initially, the company intended to grow grain, store it, mill it and make bread in a city bakery.
That plan changed as its land base increased and it learned about minimum tillage and the chance, with major investment, to farm even more land.
In 2005, the company began its switch from plowing to minimum tillage systems, buying New Holland combines and tractors, Bourgault seeders and Spray Air sprayers.
It intends to eventually be completely no-till.
Proper and adequate grain storage remains a concern, particularly for rapeseed.
“The technology of working with (rapeseed) is not very developed here,” Vladimirovich said through an interpreter.
“Most (farmers) store it in three-metre high buildings. It’s very important to keep the moisture and temperature right. We used the expertise from Canadians … to keep the crop in good condition.”
The elevator, complete with grain dryers and cleaning lines, opened in September 2007 and was only partially full of sunflowers. Unirem took that opportunity to fine tune its operation.
The facility operated at full capacity this year and Vladimirovich said the company learned it isn’t big enough for the increasing crop volumes it is growing.
“The next elevator will be better,” he said.
Unirem has plenty of room to expand and incorporate other ventures.
Vladimirovich points to a long brick building behind the steel elevator. He would like it to be a biodiesel plant. A business proposal has been developed, but he hasn’t yet found an investor.
He said the Canadian partner isn’t interested and it’s more likely the money will come from somewhere else, perhaps Russia.
“Diesel is cheaper than biofuel right now,” he said. “But (we) don’t think this situation will stay the same and we want to be up to date.”
Unirem ships most of its product by rail to ports at Kherson, Mykolaiyv and Odessa. A rail line runs through the property next to the elevator.
The company is also situated on the main highway between the city of Dnipropetrovsk and Kiev.
Although not a large company by Ukrainian standards, the addition of the elevator put Unirem on a higher level than some others.
Adopting new technology, mostly from Canada, is key to continuing higher, Vladimirovich said.
