By KYIV. June 6 (Interfax-Ukraine) – One of the terrible results of the blowing up of Kakhovka hydroelectric power station will be more than 20,000 hectares of agricultural land taken out of operation for many years, on which Ukrainian vegetable growing was concentrated, says Vadym Dudka, the director of the largest consulting vegetable growing company in Ukraine Agroanalysis LLC, whose main office before the war was in Kakhovka.
“If earlier we hoped that the restoration of the main vegetable-growing region after its liberation from occupation would take about three years, which would be spent on demining and restoring the material and technical base of agricultural enterprises, now we can say that the minimum restoration period is five years,” predicts the director.
According to him, the most serious problem in the region will be the restoration of reclamation lands, and the farms on the left bank of the Dnipro River will be the most affected. The right bank will also suffer, but less because it is located on a hill, the expert explained.
Dudka noted that at present there is no active agricultural work on an industrial scale in the region, which reduces the current losses for the vegetable growing industry, except for the loss of irrigation systems that will fail.
The most affected, according to the director of Agroanalysis, may be Agrofusion agricultural holding, for the needs of which Kakhovka grew tomatoes on irrigation.
Dudka added that the country’s largest vegetable storehouse Green-Team LLC could also suffer, where 50,000 tonnes of vegetables could be stored at the same time: the company accumulated the products of local farmers for subsequent transportation across Ukraine and for export.
He added that there is PrJSC Chumak, a large producer of tomato paste and canned vegetables, in Kakhovka, but it is looted and does not work.
Dudka is convinced that Kakhovka HPP can be rebuilt.
