Independent from the former Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine is placed on the crossroads of Europe where East meets West. Bordering Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and to the south the Black Sea and Sea of Azov sit.

Ukraine is divided into the Republic of Crimea and 25 other regions, with the city of Kiev being the capital with the largest population. Ukraine itself is the second largest in Europe with 45.9m people within 603,700 square kilometres.

Ukraine’s economy had slowly started to adjust to the global crisis providing good signal for investors by giving clear examples of how Ukraine is taking anti-crisis measures and to stimulate the economic situation under control. Companies like Aston Lloyd Ukraine have already invested interest in the country with their commodities based investment.

Ukraine is an ideal platform for exporting to both Russia and the EU, enhanced by Ukrainian ports that meet international standards and facilitated with high-tech equipment and a well-developed railway system. Investing into commodities within Ukraine have never seen such a good opportunity.

The temperate climatic zone gives Ukraine a warm and humid air from the Atlantic Ocean. Ukraine has 40% of the global rich black soil and with adequate rainfall, over two-third of its land has been historically used for agriculture.

The Hryvnia, Ukraine’s currency dropped 38% against the US dollar in 2008, eclipsed only by the Icelandic krona and the Seychelles rupee but has seen a good growth since.

The political dispute between Russia created sincere concerns for foreign investors and has led to a sharp drop of investors, mainly within the property and stock markets.

However, Ukraine has become a prime opportunity to re-engage and consider soft commodities, such as agriculture, simply down to the land price drop. Prices of agricultural land cost US$1,500 a hectare for good arable land. Ukraine can clearly be seen as a way to return on your investment, especially when land prices in the UK are between US$13,300 and US$26,500 a hectare.