Ukraine's population of over 50 million people makes it the largest consumer market in Eastern Europe. Direct foreign investment in the food industry in 1998 totalled US$ 584 million, which is 21% of total direct investment in all sectors in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Soya Market

The Netherlands imports 4.3 million tons of soya beans from America annually, processes them and exports end products to various countries including Ukraine, which generates more than 10 billion US dollars in profit. Russia and Belarus have also realised the effectiveness and profitability of growth and consumption of soya beans. A state development programme "Soya" has run for the past 6 years in Russia which is geared towards improvement of the soya market.

The Soya Bean Association was founded in Ukraine by the non-profit organisation "Agudath Israel of America", within the framework of "Food for Progress" humanitarian aid programme of the US Department of Agriculture. The activities of the Soya Bean Association covers a wide range of measures which aim to raise awareness of Soya products. These include publishing literature, holding seminars, conferences and providing technological support for food organisations. Thanks to the work of the Soya Bean Association, imports of foreign Soya products have greatly increased recently.

The Soybean Association's main objective is the development of the soya market in Ukraine. In the last 2 years, since they opened their office in Kiev, representatives of the Ukrainian Soya Bean Association visited more than 200 soya-related plants and factories. These visits made it possible to evaluate the performance of each organisation, to define the capacity to process soya beans, to develop soya products and the sue of soya additives in food or feed manufacturing.