The Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA) 2013, hosted during the International Green Week in Berlin by the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV), will feature an agricultural policy symposium jointly organized by IAMO and the Agribusiness Working Group of the Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations. High-profile participants from politics, academia and business in the regional panel titled "From Micro-credit to Shareholder Value: Access to finance in the agricultural sector in Eastern Europe and Central Asia" will be discussing currently available financing sources for agricultural businesses in these regions.
The agricultural sector in Eastern Europe and Central Asia is characterized by a strong heterogeneity of its farming structures, ranging from subsistence-oriented household plots via small market-oriented agricultural businesses to large-scale and often vertically integrated agricultural holdings. All forms of farming businesses play a key role in the region’s economic and social development. They also contribute to food security, both domestically and via the world market internationally. Providing favorable bank loans for farming operations is a central element of agricultural support in the region. However, small family businesses have so far not participated much in formal credit markets, while large agroholdings may obtain funding from international financial markets.
The panelists will be discussing the connections between farm structures and financing sources, as well as the opportunities and risks for public support for agricultural investment in Eastern European and Central Asia. The words of welcome to participants in the expert panel by Dr. Thomas Kirchberg, Chairman of the Agribusiness Working Group of the Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations (OA), and a greeting by Dr. Robert Kloos, State Secretary, Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, will be followed by an academic introduction to the topic by Dr. Martin Petrick, Deputy Head of Department Agricultural Policy, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Central and Eastern Europe (IAMO), who will compare the various farm and production structures in the countries concerned. The panel discussion among Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, Aleksandr Petrikov, Deputy Minister of Agricultural Policy of the Ukraine, Oleksandr Sen, and Gulmira Issayeva, Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan, will provide different perspectives from politics. The business community will be represented by Dr. Heinz Strubenhoff, Agribusiness Program Manager of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Dirk Stratmann, Ukraine Spokesman of the Agribusiness Working Group, Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations (OA), and the President of the Association of Peasant Farmers and Agricultural Cooperatives of Russia (AKKOR), Vladimir Plotnikov (tbc).
The expert panel discussion will be held on Friday, 18 January 2013, from 12:30pm to 2:30pm, Hall 7, International Congress Centrum (ICC) Berlin. There will simultaneous translation into German, English and Russian. Interested journalists are invited to register for the symposium by 17 January 2013 at presse(at)iamo.de.
In addition, IAMO will operate an information booth at the GFFA Cooperation Market: 19 January, 9:00 am to 3:00 pm, in Hall 2, ICC Berlin.
About Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations
The Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations (OA) is a joint organization of the leading associations representing German business and acts as central point of contact for German companies with interests in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Central Asia, South Caucasus and South-eastern Europe. The OA supports economic policy developments in bilateral relations with those countries and promotes trade, investments and service transfers by German companies in the difficult markets of this region. The Agribusiness Working Group of the Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations is the only regional initiative of the German business community to have pooled the international commitment of the German agricultural and food industry since 2001. The OA organizes and hosts the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture Berlin.
Media contact
Andreas Metz
Phone +49 (0)30 2028-1441
E-mail: a.metz(at)bdi.eu
www.ost-ausschuss.de