There are only six working elevators in the unoccupied territory of Donbass. This is reported by ProAgro Group with reference to the information of the Donetsk Regional State Administration.
“Before this winter, there were 37 operating elevators in the region, including three state-owned and 34 private ones. After the beginning of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, there were 12 in the temporarily occupied territory. Of those enterprises that were in non-occupied territory, only six are now operating, including two state-owned elevators,” said Elena Rybakova, deputy director of the department – head of the department of land relations and digital transformation.
According to her, storage capacity of these facilities allows to ensure the safety of more than one million tons of grain harvest. Given that this year’s harvest in the unoccupied territory is expected about 1.1 million tons, and the remains of last year’s harvest is about 40 thousand tons, the existing storage capacity should be enough to store crops. But everything will depend on the security situation.
“We cooperate with elevators in neighboring regions to store our farmers’ crops. There are also agreements on storage at state-owned elevators in the region. The region’s agrarians have to bear the additional costs of transportation to the neighboring regions. Private elevators either do not purchase grain now, or buy it at a low price. And the cost of storage is quite high there”, – said Olena Rybakova.
At the same time, the Regional State Administration notes that because of low purchase prices for grain in the Donetsk region and high tariffs for transportation to other regions, most agricultural enterprises do not sell grain yet, waiting for more favorable conditions.
