In Ukraine’s agricultural sector, more than 50% of companies are unprofitable

Agricultural companies topped the ranking of the most unprofitable sectors of the economy — 56% of enterprises are operating in the red.

This was reported by People’s Deputy Nina Yuzhanina (European Solidarity).

More than half of the enterprises of the agro-industrial complex (AIC) in Ukraine are unprofitable. According to data published by Yuzhanina, 56.3% of agricultural companies ended the year with financial losses. This is the highest figure among all types of economic activity in the country.

For comparison: a year ago, 38.2% of agricultural enterprises were unprofitable. Thus, the share of unprofitable companies increased by 18.1 percentage points.

According to Yuzhanina, the situation may worsen due to the suspension of the “visa-free trade” with the European Union, which will come into effect this week. According to estimates by business associations, it is the agricultural sector that will suffer the most, since more than 52% of agricultural exports go to EU markets.

The parliamentarian referred to data from the Ministry of Economy, according to which annual losses from the abolition of the duty-free regime are estimated at 3 billion euros. At the same time, according to her, business expects even greater losses.

Earlier, USM reported that the European Commission had adopted a transitional mechanism for trade with Ukraine instead of the “trade visa-free regime.”