The U.S.-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC) announced recently that UkrAgroCom & Hermes-Trading has received financing from the U.S. Export-Import Bank to buy grain storage equipment from Illinois-based Grain Systems, Inc. (GSI).

"To be unbiased I should say that this was one of the projects in the financial history of our group that took the longest time to complete," Alexey Skichko, the CFO of Hermes-Trading, said. "There were high requirements from the U.S. Ex-Im Bank and we were successful in meeting all of them. This achievement is very pleasing and gives us hope for the future potential of this instrument regarding financing the Ukrainian agricultural sector."

The group's projects include the Svitlovodsk River terminal, the only river terminal in the Kirovohrad region, and the Petrykivski Moloko dairy farm, one of the leading dairy farms in Ukraine.

GSI is the world's largest manufacturer of steel farm grain bins, commercial storage grain bins and grain silos, according to the USUBC.

"In addition, they offer technologically advanced grain dryers in the industry and a large selection of material handling systems including grain bin sweeps, grain spreaders, chain loop systems, bucket elevators, chain conveyors, enclosed belt conveyors, support towers, and catwalks," Morgan Williams, the president of USUBC, said.

GSI recently became part of U.S.-based AGCO Corp., which designs, manufactures and distributes agricultural machinery.