The USAID Economic Resilience Activity (ERA), in coordination with the Ukrainian agribusiness company Agromino, have developed a video to promote the use of mega big bags (MBBs) among Ukrainian grain exporters. ERA had procured 250 MBBs from Arivapak LLC, a Ukrainian industrial packaging manufacturer, which were delivered to delivered to Agromino, who is Ukraine’s first and currently only company, to use MBBs for grain exports.
The video is to show other agricultural exporters this new transshipment option. In the video, Agromino highlights the benefits of the MBBs which hold 14 tons of grain per bag, in comparison to the regular bags which were of 800 kg capacity each. The video demonstrates how easily this is done technologically – installing the MBB in the wagon and filling it with the grain, and sending the wagon via railroad car to customers in Europe. This technology allows the exporter to load five railcars a day, which is approximately 350 tons of grain. This all impacts the cost of production and allows Agromino to increase the volume of grain shipment, and thus earn more money for the company. Agromino has already shipped 4,200 tons of grain using MBBs. ERA is promoting this technology to help agricultural exporters learn about new opportunities to speed up grain exports and allow Ukraine to make deliveries and ensure global food security even during this time of war.
Such assistance to agricultural producers is part of the Agriculture Resilience Initiative – Ukraine (AGRI-Ukraine), which is being implemented by USAID. It aims to help Ukraine increase its capacity to produce, store, transport and export grain.