By Andri Shemchuk, director of Lely Center L-Ukraine
Lely in Ukraine
- Lely entered the Ukrainian market in 2021 as Ukrainian Lely Center L-Ukraine.
- Lely robots installed since 2021: 21
- Lely robots sold since 2021: 25
- Competitors and long-time players in the market are DL
(30 robots sold) and GEA (15 robots sold). - To ensure sufficient support, the Lely Center in Ukraine is forced to move from the RUCA cluster to the North-East cluster.
The Ukrainian dairy market
All figures listed are from February 2021 due to a lack of reliable new data. The war has had a clear negative impact on Ukrainian dairy development.
- There are approximately 1.7 million dairy cows in Ukraine. 430,000 dairy cows live at farms of 50 cows or more, of which 234,000 live at XL farms.
- Between 2017-2021, the total number of dairy cows declined, while the average yield per cow increased from 4,600 to 5,3000 litres per year (30% below European average) due to the modernisation of farms and use of new technologies.
- A 2021 study found that 50% of Ukrainian farmers are open to implementing robotics at their farms.
- Lely sees strong potential to develop the market for robotics in Ukraine following the end of the war.
- Lely expects to be included in a ‘Marshall Plan’ for the rebuilding of the agricultural sector in Ukraine.
By Jeroen Keijzer, Cluster manager RUCA
Lely's activities in Russia
From the 24th of February onwards, Lely decided to stop commercial activities of their RUCA (Russia & Central Asia) cluster in Russia and Belarus. The cluster would only remain active in these countries to provide service support to the Lely Centers and supply spare parts to the 900 already installed robots.
The cluster proceeded its commercial activities in the remaining countries in its territory, such as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. However, as more and more sanctions were imposed, placing a heavy burden on the cluster, the import of spare parts and delivery of IT support to the LCs and farms proved to be almost impossible. Lely is obligated to strictly comply with these sanctions and to prevent other, non-official channels from illegally exporting sanctioned parts or services to Russia and Belarus.
The above facts will have severe consequences for the RUCA cluster, and for the LCs in our regions and Lely farmers that can no longer count on our support.
Impact
The war has had a big impact on trade. It's almost impossible to import goods, for example. Anything you want to order in Europe and want to pay for in euros is being checked and double-checked. There's also a big psychological impact. We worry about our family and friends. And you just have to live with that.
We also know that this war will end and trust that everything will be okay again. That everything will be Ukrainian again. The first priority is the normalisation of the situation. Nothing more, nothing less. In the medium term, and when Ukraine is accepted into the European Union, we foresee an incredible inflow of foreign investment, and the complete rebuilding and modernisation of our country. That's how we see our future.
Farmers
The resilience of the Ukrainian farmers is unbelievable. In the early days of the war, the Luhansk region was not yet completely occupied. One of our clients there decided to take his family, his cows, his machines and move out to the west of Ukraine. He bought a small farm there and started over. He's even thinking about the future already. In fact, he wants to invest in Lely robots. We're actively planning and designing to realise two robots next year.
Every time we speak to a customer, we ask if they plan to proceed. Some of them need time to think about it, but in the end they all conclude: we are farmers, we can't imagine ourselves doing anything else.
Unfortunately, we don't have any contact with our customers in the occupied areas of Ukraine, such as the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. Or with our colleagues at Eridon, our Lely affiliate in Ukraine. Eridon had several offices and warehouses there. Everything is lost and all the stock was taken by the Russians.
Living and working in Ukraine
We are still here and we are still working. Of course, everything changed on February 24, when Russia launched its attack on Ukraine. But we stayed where we are. In fact, we see it as our responsibility to stay. Leaving means leaving our farmers and robots. Without our support, their farms wouldn't be working, and we can't let that happen. We continue to operate out of the Kyiv area and work throughout the country, on both sides of the Dnipro River that runs through our country. Despite the risks, we still visit our customers and their farms.
The theme of this magazine is 'great place to work': how we at Lely give substance to this and how our employees experience it. However, there are places in the world where working for Lely is not at all easy at the moment. We also want to unburden and support our colleagues in these areas as much as possible, in line with our OneLely culture. In this issue we therefore deliberately reflect on the situation in Ukraine. What does the market and the life of a Lely Center manager and his customers look like now?
ZOOMING IN ON
By Jeroen Keijzer
Cluster manager RUCA
Lely's activities in Russia
From the 24th of February onwards, Lely decided to stop commercial activities of their RUCA (Russia & Central Asia) cluster in Russia and Belarus. The cluster would only remain active in these countries to provide service support to the Lely Centers and supply spare parts to the 900 already installed robots.
The cluster proceeded its commercial activities in the remaining countries in its territory, such as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. However, as more and more sanctions were imposed, placing a heavy burden on the cluster, the import of spare parts and delivery of IT support to the LCs and farms proved to be almost impossible. Lely is obligated to strictly comply with these sanctions and to prevent other, non-official channels from illegally exporting sanctioned parts or services to Russia and Belarus.
The above facts will have severe consequences for the RUCA cluster, and for the LCs in our regions and Lely farmers that can no longer count on our support.
Lely in Ukraine
- Lely entered the Ukrainian market in 2021 as Ukrainian Lely Center L-Ukraine.
- Lely robots installed since 2021: 21
- Lely robots sold since 2021: 25
- Competitors and long-time players in the market are DL
(30 robots sold) and GEA (15 robots sold). - To ensure sufficient support, the Lely Center in Ukraine is forced to move from the RUCA cluster to the North-East cluster.
Impact
The war has had a big impact on trade. It's almost impossible to import goods, for example. Anything you want to order in Europe and want to pay for in euros is being checked and double-checked. There's also a big psychological impact. We worry about our family and friends. And you just have to live with that.
We also know that this war will end and trust that everything will be okay again. That everything will be Ukrainian again. The first priority is the normalisation of the situation. Nothing more, nothing less. In the medium term, and when Ukraine is accepted into the European Union, we foresee an incredible inflow of foreign investment, and the complete rebuilding and modernisation of our country. That's how we see our future.
All figures listed are from February 2021 due to a lack of reliable new data. The war has had a clear negative impact on Ukrainian dairy development.
- There are approximately 1.7 million dairy cows in Ukraine. 430,000 dairy cows live at farms of 50 cows or more, of which 234,000 live at XL farms.
- Between 2017-2021, the total number of dairy cows declined, while the average yield per cow increased from 4,600 to 5,3000 litres per year (30% below European average) due to the modernisation of farms and use of new technologies.
- A 2021 study found that 50% of Ukrainian farmers are open to implementing robotics at their farms.
- Lely sees strong potential to develop the market for robotics in Ukraine following the end of the war.
- Lely expects to be included in a ‘Marshall Plan’ for the rebuilding of the agricultural sector in Ukraine.
Farmers
The resilience of the Ukrainian farmers is unbelievable. In the early days of the war, the Luhansk region was not yet completely occupied. One of our clients there decided to take his family, his cows, his machines and move out to the west of Ukraine. He bought a small farm there and started over. He's even thinking about the future already. In fact, he wants to invest in Lely robots. We're actively planning and designing to realise two robots next year.
Every time we speak to a customer, we ask if they plan to proceed. Some of them need time to think about it, but in the end they all conclude: we are farmers, we can't imagine ourselves doing anything else.
Unfortunately, we don't have any contact with our customers in the occupied areas of Ukraine, such as the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. Or with our colleagues at Eridon, our Lely affiliate in Ukraine. Eridon had several offices and warehouses there. Everything is lost and all the stock was taken by the Russians.
By Andri Shemchuk
director of Lely Center L-Ukraine
The theme of this magazine is 'great place to work': how we at Lely give substance to this and how our employees experience it. However, there are places in the world where working for Lely is not at all easy at the moment. We also want to unburden and support our colleagues in these areas as much as possible, in line with our OneLely culture. In this issue we therefore deliberately reflect on the situation in Ukraine. What does the market and the life of a Lely Center manager and his customers look like now?
The Ukrainian dairy market
Living and working in Ukraine
We are still here and we are still working. Of course, everything changed on February 24, when Russia launched its attack on Ukraine. But we stayed where we are. In fact, we see it as our responsibility to stay. Leaving means leaving our farmers and robots. Without our support, their farms wouldn't be working, and we can't let that happen. We continue to operate out of the Kyiv area and work throughout the country, on both sides of the Dnipro River that runs through our country. Despite the risks, we still visit our customers and their farms.
ZOOMING IN ON
