We've Built a Bridge That Everything Moves Across: Bakhmatyuk Recounts How He Opened Up Chinese Market for Ukraine
Oleg Bakhmatyuk, the owner of Ukraine's largest agricultural conglomerate, Ukrlandfarming, recounts how he spent 244 days living in China to open up the Chinese market for Ukrainian produce
The businessman told his story in an interview to the TV journalist Dmytro Spivak of Channel 112. Oleg Bakhmatyuk remembers being told by immigration authorities in Shanghai when returning from mainland China that he had continuously stayed in China for 244 days. He recalls that before that time the PRC's business and political circles weren't exactly sure where Ukraine was even situated. One year later, China's leadership stated at a Communist Party congress that Ukraine was the PRC's strategic partner, as reported by Ukrainian News.
When back in 2011 a representative of Deutsche Bank and I met with a representative of CIC (China's largest sovereign wealth fund managing hundreds of millions of dollars, one of the country's key decision makers in the area of economic development), I made a presentation of Ukrlandfarming and of Ukraine. He listened with interest and then asked at the end: Where is this place, Ukraine, anyway? Is it beyond Russia and Poland? A year later, at a congress of the Communist Party of China in December 2012, the prime minister and minister of economy of China named Ukraine as China's strategic partner, recalls Oleg Bakhmatyuk.
He adds that this achievement was not only his own.
We spent this time meeting with Chinese companies. We secured a permit to supply Ukrainian corn to China based on an audit of our company. We sponsored a study tour of Ukraine for up to a hundred Chinese journalists. We promoted Ukraine all over China. We had leading Chinese media with a readership of over 100 million write about us. We have built a bridge that everything now moves across, and we are happy that we've done it, concludes the CEO of Ukrlandfarming.
What Do We Know about Ukrlandfarming?
It is one of the country's largest agricultural companies by land holdings with operations in 600 communities across 22 regions of Ukraine. The Group grows cereals and oilseeds, farms cattle and produces eggs and egg products (Avangardco IPL). Ukrlandfarming is owned by the Ukrainian businessman Oleg Bakhmatyuk.
