This year's spring brought Ukrainian gardeners not flowers but ice. Literally. For six nights in a row, from 7 to 13 April, the return frosts destroyed more than 90% of peach crops at just one company - Green Technology Ltd near Odesa. And there are dozens of such enterprises in the region.

💸 In numbers, it looks catastrophic: 120 tonnes of product losses, UAH 7.2 million in lost revenue, UAH 1.2 million in lost VAT to the budget, and this is without taking into account other taxes, salaries, jobs that should have been worked, paid and lived in.

Now imagine that there are hundreds of such producers across the country. Multiply the losses by hundreds of times, and we have a picture of a real economic drama that is not even recorded centrally.

🧊 NOT ONLY THE BRANCHES FROZE - STATE SUPPORT FROZE

The most painful thing is not the elements themselves. It's nature, you can't change it. But the fact that gardeners were left alone with the disaster is criminal indifference. In 2020, on the initiative of Alla Stoyanova and with the support of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and the UAC, a legal mechanism for compensation for crop losses was created. It is working. But in 2024, not a single penny has been allocated for this. Not a single penny! Farmers have to record their losses themselves, apply, prove, and seek relief themselves.

🔧 Modern technologies, such as wind machines or sprinkling, allow you to preserve the crop even at -6°C. But they cost from €70,000. In Europe, gardeners are compensated 70% of the cost of such systems. In Ukraine, not a penny. No grants, no programmes. No state will.

🍑 OUR FRUIT IS UNDER THE SNOW, THEIRS IS ON THE SHELVES

This summer, more than 90% of peaches, nectarines and other stone fruits are imported. And not always of high quality. With ideal climatic conditions, intensive technologies and motivated farmers, we are forced to free up shelves for other people's goods. These are. strategic loss. Because while the domestic farmer is struggling with frost and official silence, the importer is gaining a foothold in the market.

🎯 IT'S NOT THE HARVEST THAT DIES, IT'S THE INDUSTRY THAT DIES

The silence of the state and its institutions kills not only business. It undermines the motivation to stay on the land, to grow, develop, and invest.

💬Alla Stoyanova, agrarian expert, emphasises:
"It hurts when a crop dies. But it is even more painful when trust dies. We are not asking for mercy, we are asking for partnership. We have created a compensation mechanism, we know how to prevent such losses, we have specialists, technology and motivation. But we cannot pull the entire industry out of the abyss on our own. Today, it's not about the harvest anymore - it's about the chance for Ukrainian horticulture to survive. And if we don't hear from farmers now, tomorrow the shelves will be completely filled with imports. And not always of high quality, not always fresh, not always ours."

🔔 It's not just a bad season anymore. This is a wake-up call. For the government, for local councils, for agrarian associations, for all of us. If we don't get involved, we will lose another key industry.