Zelensky signs cooperative farming bill into law

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed a bill on cooperative farming into law.

The document regulates the legal relationship for the creation, operation and termination of agricultural cooperatives in the country, the press service of the President's Office said.

Read alsoUkraine and Belarus to deepen agricultural cooperation

What will change

"The introduction of the law will contribute to the development of agricultural cooperatives, increase their market share in the production and sale of agricultural products, which in turn should strengthen the competitiveness of small- and medium-sized producers and accelerate the development of rural areas," the President's Office said.

Chronology of events

• On June 4, 2019, the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, backed the bill on cooperative farming. The document was supposed to settle all the key issues of the creation and operation of agricultural cooperatives in Ukraine in a single legislative act.
• On July 21, 2020, the Verkhovna Rada adopted draft law No. 0856 on cooperative farming. It cancels the strict division of agricultural cooperatives by type into production and service ones, allowing members (founders) of an agricultural cooperative to independently choose types of activities: production, service, processing, or multifunctional, as well as the form of activity – profitable or non-profitable entity.
• The explanatory note to the draft law says that agricultural cooperatives are one of the most common and effective forms of interaction for agricultural producers, whose share in the agricultural market of the European Union is 40-50%. In some countries and sectors it reaches 70%. In Ukraine, the number of agricultural cooperatives remains insignificant.