Mriya Agro Public : In 2016 Mriya Agro Holding paid UAH 356.9 million in taxes and UAH 20.3 million in social assistance

Mriya Agro Holding has reported its tax and social contributions for the past year. The company's total contribution to budgets of all levels was UAH 356.86 million. In addition, in 2016 Mriya provided social assistance worth UAH 20.26 million to communities in Ternopil, Khmelnytsky, Chernivtsi, Ivano-Frankiv'sk, Lviv and Rivne Regions where it produces. These funds were directed towards implementing social projects in the areas of education, medicine, spirituality, public amenities, culture and sport and for the improvement of infrastructure in villages and districts, the provision of assistance to soldiers fighting in the Donbas and the population as well as for support of the cooperative movement and the creation of new cooperatives.

Mriya's CEO, Simon Cherniavsky, said: 'For the second year in succession, Mriya's social policy entails official and transparent assistance to communities at the level of UAH 100 for each hectare of land that our company farms. We also pay state taxes promptly and in full and do the same with our obligations to leaseholders. Today Mriya is one of the largest tax payers in the agricultural sector, and this means that we are putting money into budgets and making a significant contribution to the economic growth of the country as a whole. Also our support has specifically provided an impulse for economic development through the growth of cooperatives that we are actively encouraging. There are already ten cooperatives providing agricultural services that Mriya either created or helped develop.'

The largest social projects undertaken by Mriya in 2016 included financing of customs clearance and transportation from Europe of a large consignment of medical equipment for hospitals in Ternopil, Khmelnytsky, Ivano-Frankiv'sk and Chernivtsi Regions, the opening of a cultural centre in Khorostkiv, the launch of water supply in the village of Tseliyev in Ternopil Region, assistance to the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) in Donbas and the support of the cooperative movement.

Company representatives stress that that the charitable financial assistance is directed towards the most important needs of villagers. Local communities decide for themselves how UAH 70 out of 100 UAH for every hectare farmed is allocated. UAH 20 of the remainder from each hectare goes to centralized programmes at district level and UAH 10 to ATO soldiers. Mriya Agro Holding's social policy will be implemented on the same basis in 2017.