Druzhba restores irrigation system in Ukraine with EBRD-backed financing

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Druzhba restores irrigation in Ukraine

Highlights

Druzhba restored its irrigation system with EU4Business-EBRD Credit Line financing via OTP Bank Ukraine and Raiffeisen Bank Ukraine amid ongoing war disruptions.
Support from the European Union, France, and the Crisis Response Special Fund targets resilience by helping Ukrainian agribusiness maintain output and adapt to harsher conditions.
Restored irrigation improves cost efficiency and crop protection, limiting losses and exemplifying blended finance's role in sustaining Ukraine's strategic agriculture sector.

Financing supports irrigation upgrade

As reported by the EBRD, Druzhba restored its irrigation system to strengthen crop protection, improve resilience and reduce operating costs as Ukraine’s agricultural sector faces wartime disruption and more frequent droughts.

Agriculture remains one of Ukraine’s most important industries, supplying domestic needs and export markets. Since the start of Russia’s full-scale war, keeping farms operating has become more critical as producers manage both security risks and weather-related pressure.

Druzhba is one of 2,400 companies supported through the EU4Business-EBRD Credit Line, a programme that helps businesses access finance, grants and expert advice to invest in modern technologies and strengthen operations. Its project is financed through OTP Bank Ukraine and Raiffeisen Bank Ukraine under the programme.

Donor backing targets sector resilience

The irrigation project is supported by the European Union, France and the Crisis Response Special Fund. That backing is aimed at helping Ukrainian businesses preserve output and livelihoods while adapting to harsher operating conditions.

For the agricultural sector, restoring irrigation can limit crop losses and improve cost efficiency at a time when farms are under pressure from both war and climate-related risks. The Druzhba project also illustrates how blended finance is being used in Ukraine to sustain production capacity in a strategically important industry.

In our earlier article on the EU’s trade dilemma over Ukrainian agricultural exports, we described how Black Sea disruptions and bottlenecks on alternative routes were tightening grain flows and intensifying political friction inside the bloc. We also noted that some member states were resisting faster market access for Ukraine, while the European Commission floated longer-term limits on access to EU food markets and subsidies even after accession—underscoring how hard agricultural integration could be despite broader support for Ukraine.

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