An entrepreneur from Rivne on the development of the agrarian sector in Ukraine

“Agro-Center” has been producing and selling spare parts for agricultural machinery for more than 10 years. Spare parts manufactured by the company are exported to Germany, the Czech Republic, and other European countries. Dmitry Solomchuk told journalists from “Investor-UA” about how “Agro-Center” grew from selling a few spare parts to becoming an all-Ukrainian and successful company.

Dmitry told about his first working experience – selling newspapers:

“I was still at school when I sold newspapers. Then worked at a construction site, brought cars from abroad and repaired them. I did a lot of things.”

Why did you choose the agricultural sector?

In the early 2000s, I bought several combine harvesters in the EU in order to study them and understand what machinery is the best. Those were old John Deere and Massey Ferguson harvesters. Some of them didn’t even have cabs. At that time, there was a problem with agricultural machinery in Ukraine, and we started to offer our services to the agrarians in the Rivne region. We spent the following years manufacturing combines and got faced with a real obstacle – it was impossible to find spare parts for imported combines. The smallest bearings cost 50 dollars! And it was considered normal. I went abroad and noticed that in Poland the same bearings cost 5 dollars.

How is working in agriculture? This sector is considered to be not very progressive.

I have to disagree with you here. Agrarians are beginning to use various technologies and most farmers keep uptechnologies. I love villages. I really like it there. People are always pleasant. It’s only there that I can relax and rest.

Why is “Agro-Center” a successful company?

I wouldn’t call it a very successful one. We recently wrote a plan for 2019, and I think that we will be really successful in a year or two. At the moment, we are transitioning from a small business to an average one. All we have now is due to several factors. Firstly, our team. Here you can always count on advice and support from colleagues. Secondly, we always try to put ourselves in our customers’ shoes and do everything possible to make sure they are comfortable and satisfied. 98% of our clients are good people and working with them is a real pleasure. We understand that we help them today – they help us tomorrow. And thirdly, honesty. It’s very important to never hide a problem. I always tell my co-workers: “If there’s a problem, tell about it right away”. It’s much easier to deal with it together.