USAID, through its Economic Resilience Activity (ERA), delivered sixteen grain trailers to eight agricultural companies in 2023 and two more in 2024. These modern, lightweight trailers will speed up grain collection and unloading and help increase grain handling by approximately 31,400 tons/year.
As an example, a subsidiary of Astarta-Kyiv received two grain trailers which will increase their annual transshipment capacities by 12,000 tons. At the moment, the company uses trucks for transporting grain and oils from elevators. The new trailers procured by USAID ERA will enable Astarta to transport corn, wheat, rapeseed, soybeans and sunflower seeds to sea and river ports more efficiently.
Furthermore, Phoenix Agro, a service provider of the First Ukrainian Agricultural Cooperation in central and western Ukraine, received four grain trailers from ERA. This equipment will enable them to transport grain from local farms to the transshipment terminal in Cherkasy oblast. From there, the grain is then exported through Ukrainian maritime/river ports and railways. Prior to obtaining their own grain trailers, Phoenix Agro was leasing similar trailers from other companies.
“Now, we will be less dependent on other third parties and we will not be subject to the availability of equipment on market. The trailer we received from USAID can be certified for transportation to Europe, so our company can export its products to European countries and deliver them directly to processing plants” says Olha Vakarchuk, Financial Director of one of the benefitting companies. “We expect that one trailer will allow us to increase export capacities by 5-10%”.
We would like to reiterate that the procurement of equipment is carried out within the framework of the Agriculture Resilience Initiative (AGRI) – Ukraine, implemented by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). This initiative is aimed at mitigating a global food crisis exacerbated by Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine.