A Ukrainian SME has grown its grain and industrial crop business thanks to a series of carefully targeted small loans arranged under the EU4Business programme. Now the small company, Dzherelo, has expanded to farm 1 000 hectares and created seven jobs.
Farmland expansion plan supported
Sergei Sinizkiy, a businessman farmer in Kharkiv region, Ukraine, was farming just a few hectares of land little over a decade ago. But Sergei held on to his dream to grow the business and found support from an EU4Business institution in the form of the European Fund for Southeast Europe (EFSE).
A series of loans, amounting to € 23 800, arranged through EFSE’s Ukrainian partner MegaBank between 2007 and 2012, helped him achieve his vision. Now Sergei’s company, Dzherelo, leases over 1 000 hectares and has seven employees.
If this success story is the product of Sergey’s determination and skills as a businessman farmer, he points out that having a strong partner makes all the difference.
“MegaBank fully understood my situation,” he explained. “And if sometimes the going got tougher, I never felt I had to sugar-coat the news. And that also enabled them to react more quickly and provide effective support.”
Besides tilling winter wheat, spring barley and sunflowers for local cooperatives and food producers, Dzherelo has gone on to grow revenues further by renting out farm equipment to other farmers in the region.
“Ten years ago, I didn’t have to look that far to see where our fields ended,” he pointed out across countryside. “Today, we’re cultivating almost a hundred and fifty times more land. It’s not been easy, but it could have been a lot harder.”
Date
2007-2019
Find out more
The European Fund for Southeast Europe (EFSE) aims to support viable micro and small enterprises in the Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries, including Ukraine, to finance their investments and development. It has a € 5.1 million contribution from the EU and runs until 2019.
EFSE does not lend directly in Ukraine, only via partner banks. For details on eligibility criteria and lending conditions, please contact the partner banks in Ukraine:
MegaBank PJSC
Address: Department of Corporate Client Crediting, 30 Artyoma street, 61002 Kharkiv, Ukraine
Phone: (057) 719-44-43, 715-52-64, 714-21-83, 760-20-71
Email: mega@megabank.net
Address: 107-А Peremohy Prosp., 03115 Kyiv Ukraine
Phone: 0-44-590-10-00
