Agrarian official names approx price per hectare if farmland market launches in Ukraine

"The shadow land market will exist while a moratorium on its sale will operate. Had the market been launched, the price of 1 hectare would have varied between UAH 50,000 and UAH 60,000," Martyniuk said, according to EP.

According to the official, the moratorium on farmland sale will remain in force until the law on the turnover of agricultural land is voted in.

"This epic story we are seeing today with the extension of the moratorium is nothing but a mere PR act in order to please the public and say that the people have been protected," Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said.

Read alsoUkraine sees state farmland lease rate growHe specified that he opposed the sale of land to agricultural holdings and foreign nationals.

"It is possible to allow the turnover of land between Ukrainian farmers, individuals in the amounts necessary to create an agricultural enterprise," the prime minister said.

Martyniuk added that 70% of all land plots were included in the land cadastre, while the State Geodetic Inventory Agency fully provides the process of renting land plots.

As UNIAN reported earlier, on December 1, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko instructed to complete within a year the creation of the electronic land cadastre and fill it by 100% in order to launch land reform.

At present, the working group at the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine is completing its work on the formation of a model for launching the land market in Ukraine and the development of a corresponding draft law on farmland turnover.

Read alsoUkraine's land reform provides for measures to prevent all risks – MartyniukAccording to the model of land reform proposed by the government, only citizens of Ukraine will be entitled to purchase land in case the moratorium is lifted, while the maximum ownership threshold per citizen shall not exceed 200 hectares. At the same time, the working group under the Ministry of Agrarian Policy allows the possibility of selling land plots subject to a number of restrictions to small farms.

Since 2001, a moratorium has been effective in Ukraine on farmland turnover. In October 2016, the Verkhovna Rada extended it until the end of 2017. Experts and public were divided on the issue of lifting the ban on farmland sale. Some believe that the extension creates a shadow market of land, while others argue that the abolition of the moratorium will affect the villagers and facilitate land purchase by foreign companies.