OREANDA-NEWS. May 16, 2008. The EBRD is taking further steps to stem the global rise in food prices, holding a conference of senior regional agriculture officials and leading private sector agribusiness executives with the aim of finding practical solutions to increasing food production, reported the press-centre of EBRD.

The conference will be held in Kiev on May 20, one day after the Bank’s May 18-19 Annual Meeting in the Ukrainian capital.

The delegates will first discuss the obstacles to investing in the region’s agricultural sector, where the EBRD believes there are substantial areas of untapped arable land.

A second session will look at ways of improving the dialogue between the public and private sectors, creating better links between the agribusiness industry and farmers and harnessing private sector investments to improve the infrastructure for farming.

EBRD president Jean Lemierre, who will open the conference, will tell delegates, “This region has enormous agricultural potential. By bringing together the private and public sector in dialogue I am convinced that very quickly we will help kick-start the investments needed to restore the region’s primacy as an agricultural producer.”

The discussions will draw on lessons learnt at a March 10 conference in London staged jointly by the EBRD and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. The EBRD and FAO estimate that some 23 million hectares of arable land were withdrawn from production in recent years in Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan.

At least 13 million hectares could be returned to production, with no major environmental cost.

Key speakers at the Kiev conference include Ukraine’s Minister of Agrarian Policy, Yuriy Melnik, as well as senior executives from private industry.

The EBRD is the single largest investor in the agribusiness sector in the region where it operates. The EBRD’s involvement in the agribusiness sector spans all activities throughout the production chain, from farming, processing and trading to food distribution, packaging and retail.

The Bank has also played a major role in developing the sector by supporting local and foreign corporate clients as well as micro, small and medium sized enterprises.

In 2007 the EBRD invested ?520 million in the agribusiness sector and expects to invest roughly the same amount this year.

Most recently the EBRD provided a \\$20 million loan to Ukraine’s agribusiness group Astarta, to support its drive to put into operation equipment to achieve higher energy efficiency at its sugar production plants as well as in sugar beet farming operations.