Formation of the export potential of Ukraine’s agricultural sector: an ecological and economic approach

Анотація

Introduction. In the twenty-first century, the agricultural sector is increasingly viewed not only as a source of food, raw materials, and foreign exchange earnings but also as a key element in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. In the context of mounting environmental threats, climate change, land degradation, and the scarcity of natural resources, there is a pressing need to rethink approaches to the development of the agro-industrial complex - taking into account both economic efficiency and ecological responsibility. This issue is of particular relevance to agricultural exports, which constitute the basis of foreign economic activity for many countries with strong agricultural sectors, including Ukraine. Methodology. The study employed a wide range of general scientific and applied research methods, enabling a comprehensive analysis of the process of forming the export potential of the agricultural sector under increasing environmental challenges. A systemic approach was applied, which made it possible to consider the export capacity of the agrarian sector as a multifactorial category shaped at the intersection of economic, natural-resource, institutional, and technological factors. Statistical analysis was used to examine the dynamics of Ukraine’s agricultural exports, their structural composition by product type and geographical destination, as well as environmental constraints in production. To assess public policy in the field of sustainable agri-food exports, the method of critical analysis of legal documents and strategies was applied. Thus, the combination of methods ensured an interdisciplinary approach to evaluating and shaping the export potential of the agricultural sector, oriented simultaneously towards economic efficiency and environmental responsibility. Results. The findings indicate that the export potential of Ukraine’s agricultural sector remains significantly underutilised due to a number of systemic barriers. Among these are the low level of ecological modernisation of production, the dominance of raw-material exports with minimal processing, and the absence of an integrated policy linking foreign trade objectives with environmental security. The ecological and economic analysis confirmed the urgent need to transform the export model of the agrarian sector by combining economic efficiency with the principles of sustainable development, particularly in the light of Ukraine’s commitments to the implementation of the European Green Deal, the introduction of carbon border adjustment mechanisms (CBAM), and compliance with international ESG standards. It has been established that Ukraine’s existing competitive advantages - including fertile soils, favourable agro-climatic conditions, relatively low production costs, and proximity to EU and Middle Eastern markets - cannot be fully realised without the systemic implementation of environmentally friendly technologies, the improvement of certification infrastructure, and the enhancement of value-added in agricultural exports.

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