Winter has really started in Ukraine, Huizinga says over the phone: “It started snowing today. A big snowstorm. It’s not very cold, one or two degrees of frost. But everything is snow white now.”
Huizinga can be satisfied given the circumstances. “The weather was very nice in September and October. A large part of November too. So the harvesting went well. We were able to work for a long time. That has often been different. We are now right on time.”
So most of the work is done for this year: “The last corn has been dried. Three hundred hectares still have to be plowed. Beets will come in next spring.”
Last time you were worried about how to get the grain harvest out of the country.
“Somehow we manage to do that well. We have a good relationship with the grain traders, such as Cargill and ADM. They are global players. We have always treated each other well. They are now taking things neatly from us.”
“No, for a bad price. About $110 per ton of grain. Normally it is $170.”
Huizinga therefore does not expect to save a cent on his wheat and barley harvest: “It will be loss-making. We purchased expensive fertilizer and diesel last year. That is why the costs are high. But the yield is good, so it will be a small minus. So it’s not too bad.”
All in all, Huizinga is doing better this year than he previously estimated. He owes this partly to the proceeds from the dairy branch of his company. The feed – grain – for the cows is cheap, while the milk fetches a good price.
The same goes for the vegetables he grows. Huizinga: ‘Previously, most of the vegetable cultivation in Ukraine came from Kherson, but that area is still occupied. Moreover, irrigation is no longer possible there since the dam was blown up. A disaster for the population of that area, but for Huizinga it means a business windfall.
Although the grain deal between Ukraine and Russia has now ended, Ukraine still manages to get wheat and barley out of the country through its ports on the Black Sea.
Huizinga: “Of course they have sent those beautiful long-range missiles at the Black Sea Fleet. So Russia has withdrawn this fleet to the east. As a result, Odessa is now out of their reach. Moreover, the grain ships sail close to the coast until they reach Romanian waters. It turns out that the Russians can’t do much about that.”
That does not mean that grain exports will continue as usual, says Huizinga: ‘You still have to be careful. Not everyone dares to sail here. Moreover, the insurance of those ships is terribly expensive. In addition, the owners of the ships ask for more money because the risks are greater. All those costs have to be discounted. That’s all at the farmer’s expense.’
Huizinga is busy selling his harvest: “As long as those ships are sailing, we try to sell as much as possible. That’s going quite well, but not as quickly as before. Back then I could sell five thousand or ten thousand tons with a phone call. then it was gone after one or two weeks.”
‘But now I’m on the phone all the time. Then it concerns a batch of five hundred or a thousand tons. The largest batch was two thousand tons.’
Since the Russian invasion, Ukrainian grain has been partly exported via the ports on the Danube. That is not without risk, says Huizinga: “Then there is another drone attack and then you have to wait until it is over and the damage is repaired. So everything no longer goes so smoothly.”
Last time you also said that the owners of the land you lease have to wait longer for their money. Will you be able to pay them this year?
“That’s why we tried to sell that grain as quickly as possible to raise money. Normally we pay the rent in September and October. That was delayed this year. They understand, but in the end they call you completely flat. asking where the money is.”
Huizinga, in turn, can understand that: “Those people need that money. It’s not easy for them either. But everyone has now received their money.”
All in all, Huizinga cannot complain. But these are uncertain times in Ukraine, also for the farmers. In order to have some capital on hand in an emergency, Huizinga applied for and received extra credit from the government: “We are not using it yet, but it is ready as a reserve to fall back on. Expensive money is better than no money.” .”
“We will survive another season, until the 2024 harvest. But it will not necessarily get any easier,” he concludes.
“A lot still needs to be sold and therefore transported. That remains a risk. The (grain) prices are low, so that limits your options. I can’t just replace all the machines, as I should. You postpone that, because you don’t have the money for that. The risk that they will break and that the work will not be completed on time is also greater. That in turn costs revenue.”
So what you postpone now, you have to catch up on later?
“Yes, you can say it that way.”
All in all, things are not getting any easier, Huizinga notes. One stroke of luck: the fertilizer is now considerably cheaper. “Because it took so long to die, farmers bought less fertilizer. As a result, the price fell.”
The price of art was so high last year partly because traders were trying to make a profit, Huizinga explains: “If the price of grain is high, they also increase the price of fertilizer. They think: those farmers can certainly afford that. They so they abuse it.”
Moreover, Huizinga is only dependent on fertilizer to a limited extent for his company, he says: “We bought a lot of chicken manure, which we have now spread over most of the land. So we don’t need that much fertilizer.”
Something else: here in the Netherlands it was recently in the news that the Ukrainian government is restricting the inflow of aid supplies to prevent fraud. What’s up with that?
“That would indeed be introduced on December 1, but that has now been postponed until April 1 next year.”
“The bottom line is that the buyer must already be known,” Huizinga explains. “For this you need an official letter with stamps. Only then can you enter it. That is quite difficult for our De Leeuw Kyiv foundation, because you do not always know in advance what you will get and to whom you will deliver it. Everything in advance meeting and closing is difficult.”
Huizinga understands the measures, even though they have been postponed: “Ukraine has the image of a corrupt country. They are trying to do something about that. But I think 90 to 95 percent of the aid ends up in the right place. You always have people who abuse it, but that is not only the case in Ukraine.”
“Because the introduction of these new rules has been postponed, we and the foundation can continue as usual next winter. Of course, the supply of money and goods is no longer as large as it has been over the past year and a half. The government has also taken over part of the aid provision. “The most help is now needed for the people who live close to the front line and cannot leave.”
Donations are still welcome, Huizinga wants to say: “We recently received the furniture from a department store in the Netherlands. It had smoke damage. That stuff had to be thrown away, so that’s why they donated it to us. It went to Odessa, where many refugees are there.”
Western media attention to the war in Ukraine has declined since the outbreak of the war between Israel and Hamas. Moreover, the conflict in Ukraine shows few newsworthy developments.
Huizinga: “There are currently no major military actions underway. Hundreds of people are dying at the front every day – mainly Russians – but there is no forward or backward movement. So that is not big news.”
“Apart from that: the grain price is relatively low, so there are no African countries that are currently suffering from this. In that respect it is logical. But seen from geostrategic interests, Ukraine is much more important to Europe than Israel and the Gaza Strip.”
He calls the relaxation of Western attention for the war in Ukraine short-sighted: “If Russia gets away with this, I think everyone now knows how Russian propaganda works, with all those trolls on social media. That is extremely dangerous.”
Naturally, the conversation turns to the PVV’s election victory. Party leader Geert Wilders has emphasized more than once that he has no interest in Dutch military support for Ukraine. A position shared by a number of other European leaders of the same political stripe.
Huizinga: “I don’t know what everyone in Europe is doing or what they are thinking. But if more of these types of populists come to power, things will not get better.”
Are you concerned that Wilders’ win will lead to a decline in Dutch support, military or political, for Ukraine?
“I do worry about that, yes. I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but Putin is laughing. Whether he financed Wilders, or whether he uses him as a useful idiot, the effect is the same. I don’t know whether everyone sees this, but the long-term consequences for the Netherlands and Europe are disastrous.”