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<font size=6><b>War and Theft: The Hostile Takeover of Ukraine’s
Agricultural Land – Private Equity’s 21st Century War For Global
Enclosure and Slavery<br><br>
</b></font>
<a href="https://tlio.org.uk/war-and-theft-the-hostile-takeover-of-ukraines-agricultural-land-private-equitys-21st-century-war-for-global-enclosure-and-slavery/">
27 November 2024</a> |
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<br>
</a><h2><b>War and Theft: The Takeover of Ukraine’s Agricultural
Land<br>
<img src="cid:.0" width=615 height=389 alt="Emacs!"><br>
<a href="https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/war-theft-takeover-ukraine-agricultural-land">
View of the wheat field during the harvesting season near Krasne village,
Ukraine</a></b></h2>
<a href="https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/war-theft-takeover-ukraine-agricultural-land" eudora="autourl">
https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/war-theft-takeover-ukraine-agricultural-land<br>
<br>
</a><h3><b>War and Theft: The Takeover of Ukraine’s Agricultural Land
exposes the financial interests and the dynamics at play leading to
further concentration of land and finance.</b></h3>The total amount of
land controlled by oligarchs, corrupt individuals, and large
agribusinesses is over nine million hectares exceeding 28 percent of
Ukraine’s arable land. The largest landholders are a mix of Ukrainian
oligarchs and foreign interests mostly European and North American as
well as the sovereign fund of Saudi Arabia. Prominent US pension funds,
foundations, and university endowments are invested through NCH Capital,
a US-based private equity fund.<br><br>
Several agribusinesses, still largely controlled by oligarchs, have
opened up to Western banks and investment funds including prominent
ones such as Kopernik, BNP, or Vanguard who now control part of their
shares. Most of the large landholders are substantially indebted to
Western funds and institutions, notably the European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the World Bank.<br><br>
<img src="cid:.1" width=615 height=354 alt="Emacs!"><br><br>
<br>
Western financing to Ukraine in recent years has been tied to a drastic
structural adjustment program that has required austerity and
privatization measures, including the creation of a land market for the
sale of agricultural land. President Zelenskyy put the land reform into
law in 2020 against the will of the vast majority of the population who
feared it would exacerbate corruption and reinforce control by powerful
interests in the agricultural sector. Findings of the report concur with
these concerns. While large landholders are securing massive financing
from Western financial institutions, Ukrainian farmers essential for
ensuring domestic food supply receive virtually no support. With the
land market in place, amidst high economic stress and war, this
difference of treatment will lead to more land consolidation by large
agribusinesses.<br><br>
The report also sounds the alarm that Ukraine’s crippling debt is being
used as a leverage by the financial institutions to drive post-war
reconstruction towards further privatization and liberalization reforms
in several sectors, including agriculture.<br><br>
<h1><b>War And Theft: The Takeover of Ukraine’s Agricultural
Land</b></h1>by Frédéric Mousseau and Eve Devillers. For The Oakland
Institute, PO Box 18978 Oakland, CA 94619 USA<br><br>
<a href="https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/war-theft-takeover-ukraine-agricultural-land">
February 21, 2023</a><br><br>
<a href="https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/war-theft-takeover-ukraine-agricultural-land" eudora="autourl">
https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/war-theft-takeover-ukraine-agricultural-land<br>
<br>
</a>The war in Ukraine has been at the center stage of foreign policy and
media reports since February 2022. Little attention, however, has been
given to a major issue, which is at the core of the conflict – who
controls the agricultural land in the country known as the “breadbasket
of Europe?”<br><br>
<img src="cid:.2" width=1024 height=521 alt="Emacs!"><br><br>
<br>
This report addresses this gap – identifying the interests controlling
Ukraine’s agricultural land and presenting an analysis of the dynamics at
play around land tenure in the country. This includes the highly
controversial land reform that took place in 2021 as part of the
structural adjustment program initiated under the auspices of Western
financial institutions, after the installation of a pro-European Union
(EU) government following the Maidan Revolution in 2014.<br><br>
With 33 million hectares of arable land, Ukraine has large swaths of the
most fertile farmland in the world. 1 Misguided privatization and corrupt
governance since the early 1990s have concentrated land in the hands of a
new oligarchic class. Around 4.3 million hectares are under large-scale
agri- culture, with the bulk, three million hectares, in the hands of
just a dozen large agribusiness firms.<br><br>
<br>
In addition, according to the government, about five million hectares –
the size of two Crimea – have been “stolen” by private interests from the
state of Ukraine. The total amount of land controlled by oligarchs,
corrupt individuals, and large agribusinesses is thus over nine million
hectares, exceeding 28 percent of the country’s arable land. The rest is
used by over eight million Ukrainian farmers.<br><br>
The largest landholders are a mix of oligarchs and a variety of foreign
interests – mostly European and North American, including a US-based
private equity fund and the sovereign fund of Saudi Arabia. All but one
of the ten largest landholding firms are registered overseas, mainly in
tax havens such as Cyprus or Luxembourg. Even when run and still largely
controlled by an oligarch founder, a number of firms have gone public
with Western banks and investment funds now controlling a significant
amount of their shares.<br><br>
<br>
The report identifies many prominent investors, including Vanguard Group,
Kopernik Global Investors, BNP Asset Management Holding, Goldman
Sachs-owned NN Investment Partners Holdings, and Norges Bank Investment
Management, which manages Norway’s sovereign wealth fund. A number of
large US pension funds, foundations, and university endowments are also
invested in Ukrainian land through NCH Capital – a US-based private
equity fund, which is the fifth largest landholder in the
country.<br><br>
Most of these firms are substantially indebted to Western financial
institutions, in particular the European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development (EBRD), the European Investment Bank (EIB), and the
International Finance Corporation (IFC) – the private sector arm of the
World Bank. Together, these institutions have been major lenders to
Ukrainian agribusinesses, with close to US$1.7 billion lent to just six
of Ukraine’s largest landholding firms in recent years. Other key lenders
are a mix of mainly European and North American financial institutions,
both public and private. Not only does this debt gives creditors
financial stakes in the operation of the agribusinesses, but also confers
a significant level of leverage over them. This was evidenced by the debt
restructuring of UkrLandFarming, one of Ukraine’s largest landholders,
which involved creditors including the Export-Import agencies of the US,
Canada, and Denmark, among others, and led to important organizational
changes including layoffs of thousands of workers.<br><br>
This international financing directly benefits oligarchs, several of whom
face accusations of fraud and corrupt dealings, as well as the foreign
funds and firms associated as shareholders or creditors. Meanwhile,
Ukrainian farmers have had to operate with limited amounts of land and
financing, and many are now on the verge of poverty. Data shows that
these farmers receive virtually no support compared to agribusinesses and
oligarchs.<br><br>
The Partial Credit Guarantee Fund established by the World Bank to
support small farmers is only US$5.4 million, a negligible amount
compared to the billions channeled to large agribusinesses.<br><br>
In recent years, Western countries and institutions have provided massive
military and economic assistance to Ukraine, which became the top
recipient of US foreign aid – marking the first time since the Marshall
Plan that a European country holds this top spot.<br><br>
As of December 2022, less than one year into the war, the US has
allocated over US$113 billion to Ukraine, including US$65 billion of
military aid, 8 which is more than the entire budget of the State
Department and USAID globally (US$58 billion).<br><br>
<br>
The report details how Western aid has been conditioned to a drastic
structural adjustment program, which includes austerity measures, cuts in
social safety nets, and the privatization of key sectors of the economy.
A central condition has been the creation of a land market, put into law
in 2020 under President Zelenskyy, despite opposition from a majority of
Ukrainians fearing that it will exacerbate corruption in the agricultural
sector and reinforce its control by powerful interests.<br><br>
The findings of the report validate this concern, showing that the
creation of a land market will likely further increase the amount of
agricultural land in the hands of oligarchs and large agribusiness firms.
The latter have already started expanding their access to land. Kernel
has announced plans to increase its land bank to 700,000 hectares – up
from 506,000 hectares in 2021.<br><br>
Similarly, MHP, which currently controls 360,000 hectares of land, seeks
to expand its holdings to 550,000 hectares. MHP is also reportedly
circumventing restrictions on the purchase of land by asking its
employees to buy land and lease it to the company.<br><br>
Additionally, by supporting large agribusinesses, international financial
institutions are in effect subsidizing the concentration of land and an
industrial model of agriculture based on the intensive use of synthetic
inputs, fossil fuels, and large-scale monocropping – long shown to be
environmentally and socially destructive.<br><br>
By contrast, small scale farmers in Ukraine demonstrate resilience and a
great potential for leading the expansion of a different production model
based on agroecology, environmental sustainability, and the production of
healthy food. It is Ukraine’s small and medium-sized farmers who
guarantee the country’s food security whereas large agribusinesses are
geared towards export markets.<br><br>
<br>
In December 2022, a coalition of farmers, academics, and NGOs called on
the Ukrainian government to suspend the 2020 land reform law and all
market transactions of land during the war and post- war period, “in
order to guarantee the national security and preservation of territorial
integrity of the country in wartime and post-war reconstruction
period.”<br><br>
As explained by Prof. Olena Borodina of the National Academy of Sciences
of Ukraine (NASU), “Today, thousands of rural boys and girls, farmers,
are fighting and dying in the war. They have lost everything. The
processes of free land sale and purchase are increasingly liberalized and
advertised. This really threatens the rights of Ukrainians to their land,
for which they give their lives.”<br><br>
At a time of tremendous suffering and displacement, wherein countless
lives have been lost and massive financial resources spent for the
control of Ukraine, this report raises major concerns about the future of
land and food production in the country, which is likely to become more
consolidated and controlled by oligarchs and foreign interests.<br><br>
These concerns are exacerbated by Ukraine’s staggering and growing
foreign debt, contracted at the expense of the population’s living
conditions as a result of the measures required under the structural
adjustment program. Ukraine is now the world’s third-largest debtor to
the International Monetary Fund (IMF) 17 and its crippling debt burden
will likely result in additional pressure from its creditors,
bondholders, and international financial institutions on how post-war
reconstruction – estimated to cost US$750 billion – should
happen.<br><br>
These powerful actors have already been explicit that they will use their
leverage to further privatize the country’s public sector and liberalize
its agriculture.<br><br>
The end of the war should be the moment and opportunity for just the
opposite, i.e. the redesign of an economic model no longer dominated by
oligarchy and corruption, but where land and resources are controlled by
and benefit all Ukrainians. This could form the basis for the
transformation of the agricultural sector to make it more democratic and
environmentally and socially sustainable. International policy and
financial support should be geared towards this transformation, to
benefit people and farmers rather than oligarchs and foreign financial
interests.<br><br>
This 50 page report continues here…<br><br>
<a href="https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/war-theft-takeover-ukraine-agricultural-land">
https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/war-theft-takeover-ukraine-agricultural-land</a>
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<a href="https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/sites/oaklandinstitute.org/files/takeover-ukraine-agricultural-land.pdf" eudora="autourl">
https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/sites/oaklandinstitute.org/files/takeover-ukraine-agricultural-land.pdf<br>
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