Over the 10 years that have passed since the first Grain Ukraine Conference took place in Odesa, we’ve gained much more experience than we ever wanted to. Nevertheless, we are still here, we are working, and moreover, we are looking to the future and making plans.

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Many nations have a saying: “They tried to bury us, they didn't know we were seeds”. I think it’s a catchy slogan for our conference. 10 years ago we considered the moratorium on land sales, grain truck congestion in ports, railroad tariffs, and EU quotas a big problem for us. Today, we are working with state-of-the-art drones because we are short of people, they are on the frontline. Being under bombing and shelling we are still feeding the world, we’re squeezing into the narrowest “bottlenecks” in order to send at least a little bit of grain… Against all odds and catastrophic circumstances we are trying not to give russia any opportunity to push us out of the global market.

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In 2015, the year when Grain Ukraine was launched, exports amounted to 36 million tons. In 2021 – 65 million tons. An 80% increase! We closed 2023/2024 with 52 million tons. Under constant bombing and shelling, without the city of Mykolaiv, with a huge manpower shortage, with thousands of hectares of scorched, stolen and mined fields.

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We’re still standing on very shaky ground, but we are growing, optimizing and developing. And I am proud of the fact that all this time Grain Ukraine has always been a platform for creating all these good and great things. We have many decades ahead, but the first one is the most powerful. Thanks to all of you for coming, speaking, sharing important things and pushing the market forward.

Glory to Ukraine!