Ukrainian farmers across the country demonstrate resilience and courage every day. Despite the uncertainty and complex challenges of the wartime, they keep working, developing, and investing in this critical sector. Bruslenivske farm, a women-owned agricultural business in the Vinnytsia region, is one of the vivid examples. For 20 years, the company has been growing crops, including wheat, corn, sunflowers, barley, rapeseed, and soybeans.

To improve the land cultivation processes and increase crop yields, Vira investigated the best ways to modernise her agricultural equipment. Ultimately, she decided in favour of EUR 69,690 EU4Business-EBRD Credit Line financing from OTP Leasing, one of the programme’s partner financial institutions. With these funds, the company financed a new, modern New Holland T6070 tractor, which was immediately put to use, successfully performing various fieldwork. The 10% EU-funded investment incentive, which she received as part of the deal under the EU4Business-EBRD Credit Line programme, helped to lower the investment costs and redirect the saved funds to covering other pressing needs.

“Working with the EU4Business-EBRD Credit Line opened an opportunity for us to work more efficiently, faster, and to higher quality, while preserving soil fertility and increasing farm productivity”, Vira highlights. “In addition, the new tractor helps us to reduce fuel costs and harmful emissions and allows us to provide high-quality land cultivation services to neighbouring farms.”

The EBRD and EU support is an effective tool to bring about changes for Ukrainian farmers, as these favourable loans with a grant component enhance innovations, modernisation effort, job creation, market expansion beyond the borders of Ukraine while strengthening food security in the country.

The agricultural sector has suffered significant losses due to intensive military operations, occupation of agricultural lands, personnel shortages and problems with logistics. Despite all the difficulties, Ukrainian farmers keep doing their important work, providing millions of people in Ukraine and abroad with agricultural products.

The farm YUR-AGRO 2014 was founded 12 years ago by two brothers – Ruslan and Yuriy Pashynski – in the Khmelnytskyi region. It focuses on growing grains, legumes and oilseeds, in particular wheat, malting barley, corn, soybeans, rapeseed and sunflowers. Recently, vegetables were also added to this list. The company is constantly expanding and today cultivates 1,050 hectares of land. It has a granary with a 5,000 tons storage capacity and a fleet of agricultural machinery operated by 12 employees.

In 2024, the farm owners planned to extend the land bank, so it was necessary to acquire new highly efficient agricultural machinery. Mr. Yuriy Pashynskyi, the director of YUR-AGRO 2014, decided to attract investments through the EU4Business-EBRD Credit Line, which helps Ukrainian small and medium-sized enterprises recover and develop during the war. Under the program, they received a loan of EUR 201,728 through the partner bank “Bank L’viv”, and purchased a modern wheeled tractor Case IH Magnum 400. After the project was successfully implemented, the farm received a 10% EU-funded investment incentive on the loan amount, amounting to EUR 20,173.

As highlighted by the director of YUR-AGRO 2014, the new tractor is more efficient, consumes less fuel and is much more convenient and safer in its operation. “We are very satisfied with our participation in the EU4Business-EBRD Credit Line program. In the future, we plan to enter European markets, and the purchased machinery will help us cultivate more land, grow more grain and optimize work processes. In addition, it will save 351.54 GJ of energy and reduce CO₂ emissions by 26.15 tons annually, and overall increase the company’s productivity and competitiveness,” Mr. Yuriy emphasized.