In 2012, a group formed by Dutch greenhouse vegetable companies Rainbow and Prominent, together with investors and FoodVentures, announced their plans to establish local production on an estimated 5.7 hectares of high tech glasshouses in Busk, a city in Western-Ukraine. In 2013, the foundation was laid and the construction of the greenhouse began. They hoped to pick the first peppers and tomatoes in the summer of 2013. But then the challenges started....
"After loosing our initial Ukrainian investors, we just finished a very intensive period of sourcing alternative finance for the project", said Dirk Aleven of Foodventures. "Just when we entered final negotiations, the Maidan demonstrations and civil unrest in Ukraine took off. As a result of this, large investors pulled back and our project was postponed again."
Despite the fact that the building site of the greenhouse project was located in a relatively quiet area in the Western part of the country, it was the extreme devaluation of the Ukrainian Hryvnia that caused major problems for the group. "When we started with our plans, 1 Euro was 10 Hryvnia. All of a sudden the Hruvnia plunged towards 38 Hryvnia for a Euro. For us it would become impossible to pay our interest for the loans of the projects."
Aleven's group kept faith in the project. "We knew that eventually the situation would become better and decided that we would continue with the project using our own funds. Luckily the FMO Bank shared this opinion and they played a major role in financing the rest of the project. Together we managed to provide the funds and meet the budget to complete the 3,500 square meter glasshouse: we could finally equip it with screening, irrigation and climate controls, dry-hydroponic salad production and other technology like supplemental lighting and wood-boilers."
On May 4th 2015, the group sowed the first hydroponic lettuce. The estimated production of the greenhouses is to grow 1 million heads of lettuce annually. These are being sold to local supermarkets and restaurants in Ukraine.
Dirk Aleven, together with technical growing consultant Dick de Jong who is guiding the cultivation. This picture was taken at another project of FoodVentures in Georgia.
According to Aleven, completing this 3,500 square meters is an important step for a successful completion of the Galicia Greenery project. "With the completed service area and the 4,000 square meter warehouse, and the foundation being ready for another 5 hectares of tomato and pepper production, we hope to complete the project in phases as well in the future with a new investor. It might not yet be the best time in Ukraine at this moment, but once better times will arrive, we are already here and steps ahead of the competition."
For more information:
Dirk Aleven - Foodventures
dirk@foodventures.eu