Credit Agricole goes on tour of Ukrainian grain elevators as part of AgriExpedition-2025

Credit Agricole has partnered with «AgriExpedition-2025. Elevators» – a nationwide tour of Ukrainian grain elevators in 2025 by Latifundist media. The bank’s Agri team jointly with representatives of Elevatorist.com and expedition partners is going on a five-day tour to highlight the true state of the industry – both the accomplishments and systemic challenges arising in the wartime.

October 27 through 31, the participants will travel to see grain elevators in different regions of Ukraine that experienced drastic changes in grain storage and logistics, as well as to the central regions with the highest concentration of enterprises.

The key topics of the tour include:

• profitability of the grain elevator business and methods of forming the cost of services;
• technical condition of grain elevators, modernization needs and energy efficiency (alternative power sources, automation, power generators, solar power stations);
• quality indicators of grain produced in the 2025/2026 season;
• trading and communication with grain buyers;
• staff problems and examples of automation that minimize employee participation;
• main barriers that grain elevators face during export.

As part of “AgriExpedition 2025”, Credit Agricole is heading on tour together with experts from Elevatorist.com, KMZ Industries and Sojam. The team is planning to visit at least 10 enterprises — two grain elevators per day.

“AgriExpedition to see the grain elevators is a chance to assess the state of the grain infrastructure, share the experience of adaptation to the new challenges and offer the effective financing solutions for the investment projects on the market. Credit Agricole team places high value on maintaining personal contact with agrarian producers”, — noted Ihor Hurzhii, head of Agriexpertise at Credit Agricole.

At KMZ Industries, the current season is dubbed “pragmatic” — a number of farms are not in a hurry to start large-scale modernization/construction works and put them off for the more stable periods in the future.

“Instead, they opt for spot renovations of nodes and systems to save on fuel, increase energy efficiency, while maintaining the grain quality”, — Oleksandr Nebeskyi, commercial director of KMZ Industries.

He added that Ukrainian equipment is becoming increasingly sought after thanks to its pricing and the trust in its quality, proximity of the manufacturer to the customer and possibility of the prompt service maintenance.

«We primarily expect lively professional exchanges from the AgriExpedition. It is an opportunity to compare how grain elevators operate in different regions and segments, what challenges they face and how we can be of assistance, which solutions work and which ones require improvement», — Oleksandr Nebeskyi, commercial director of KMZ Industries.

Colleagues from Sojam observe that the current season has proved challenging, as harvesting was delayed and shifted due to weather. In the course of the AgriExpedition, they are planning to demonstrate how Sojam works directly on grain elevators — in actual storage conditions.

“We are expecting to find positive cases of what helps an enterprise to overcome hardships and remain effective. We will also offer recommendations on our technology for the agrarians, banks and elevator equipment suppliers”, — Maksym Novakov, Sojam Ukraine representative in the Eastern region.