Ukrainian Farm Delegation Visits MN

A group of Ukrainian farmers, including Igor Novytskyi, traveled across Minnesota and Iowa last week meeting with Land O’Lakes, Corteva Agriscience, USDA and others. Five to six meetings each day covered the many different needs for Ukranian farmers in the war. “We talked about critical imports for our farmers to help with inputs,” says Novytskyi. “We also talked about pickup trucks because all of our farmers gave pickup trucks to the army. We’ve bought lots of them in Europe, but Europe is almost out of those, but the U.S. has good supplies.” Novytskyi farms 17,000 acres of wheat, corn, barley, sunflowers and soybeans in central Ukraine and operates the largest milling plant in the country. The United Nations has met with Russia to discuss unblocking ports and restarting grain exports in the Black Sea. Novytskyi does not want the UN to cancel sanctions on Russia to reach the agreement. “Nobody will accept this, because Russia did so much bad to Ukraine. We hope and pray to God we can win the war and unblock it ourselves.”