Nibulon needs about $170 million in financing for the 2026/27 season, — Vadatursky

Nibulon’s working capital and trade financing needs for the 2026/27 season are about $170 million.

This was stated by Nibulon CEO Andriy Vadaturskyi. 

According to him, the deficit of working capital is increasingly becoming one of the key constraints for Ukrainian grain exports.

Vadatursky explained that due to more expensive and slower logistics, capital remains tied up in goods, storage, and transportation for longer. Because of this, exporters need more working capital to purchase the same physical volume of grain.

“In 2022, the bottleneck for Ukrainian grain exports was access to the sea. In 2026, it is increasingly becoming access to capital,” he noted.

According to Nibulon’s CEO, before a full-scale war, export logistics for Ukrainian grain could cost about $30 per ton. In the most difficult periods of 2022, costs reached $150 per ton, and now the logistics chain across the Danube costs about $85 per ton.

At the same time, the increase in world grain prices, according to him, compensates for only about $20-25 of additional costs, while another approximately $50 per ton remains within the Ukrainian logistics chain and puts pressure on the purchase price for agricultural producers.

Vadatursky noted that the lack of financing from exporters can slow down grain purchases precisely when farmers need liquidity to finance the next production cycle.

According to him, regulatory changes are not enough to unblock lending. The company believes that additional mechanisms for the participation of international financial institutions and development banks are necessary – in particular, guarantees, war risk insurance, first loss instruments, long-term refinancing and trade financing programs.

Since the beginning of the full-scale war, Nibulon, according to the company, has invested $42.9 million in logistics, in particular in the development of Danube infrastructure, land logistics, vehicle fleet, rail transportation, and the restoration of part of the fleet.