Ukraine passes historic vote on land sale liberalization.

Ukraine’s parliament on Tuesday lifted a ban on sales of 41.5 million hectares of the country’s agricultural land. 

The lawmakers decided that Ukrainians will be able to sell and buy its prime farmland, a liberalization that was one of the conditions the country had to fulfill to unlock an $8 billion loan package from the International Monetary Fund. 

The new law also paves the way for a referendum to decide whether foreigners will be able to acquire the land too. For now, the ban will be lifted for Ukrainian entities and individuals only. 

The land in question makes up almost 70 percent of the country’s territory. Thirty-three percent of the world’s black soil, the most fertile type of earth, is located in Ukraine. 

After Ukraine won independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, the previously state-owned land was redistributed among farmers in small parcels that cannot exceed 2 hectares. The law forbade them from reselling it.

Many farmers decided to lease their parcels to big agricultural companies, meaning businesses operating on 100-hectare areas needed to strike hundreds of lease contracts.

The new bill will allow Ukrainian landowners to sell their land from July 1, 2021. Any individual will be able to own a maximum 10,000 hectares of land. People who currently lease the land will have a preemptive right to buy it. 

The new law has also introduced a transitional period which will last until January 1, 2024. Until then, only individuals will be able to buy up to 100 hectares of land, while businesses will be banned from buying. 

“Land market reform has been a no-go area for all governments and parliaments since 1991. Putting the long-awaited land reform into motion, the Ukrainian authorities have proved again their commitment to an ambitious modernization agenda. We expect that the launch of the land market will improve the business climate in Ukraine and our attractiveness for foreign investments,” Ukraine’s Mission to the EU said in a statement. 

The law now has to be signed by the President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, which is a formality since he’s been the main initiator of the new rules.

https://pro.politico.eu/news/ukraine-passes-historic-vote-on-land-sale-liberalization