January 2026 in European agricultural policy was not marked by grand strategies or visionary reforms. Instead, it was the month of a "hard collision" between expectations and reality. The key takeaway from the start of the year is unambiguous: the center of gravity in decision-making has shifted from the supranational level of the European Commission to the national capitals of Member States. For the EU, this is an era of caution; for Ukraine, it is a signal that the rules of engagement have fundamentally changed. 

Ukrainian farmers will sow 22–23 million hectares with crops in 2026, if the front line does not change significantly. This opinion was expressed by Pavlo Koval, Director General of the Ukrainian Agrarian Confederation, in an interview with Mind.

He noted that almost 6 million hectares of the indicated area have already been sown with winter crops: 570 thousand hectares of winter barley and 1.1 million hectares of winter rapeseed, about 70 thousand hectares of winter rye and 4.8 million hectares of wheat.

Amid ongoing battles, Moscow turns to maps and paperwork to assert control over Ukraine's occupied farmland.

IFC announced a $40 million investment in Astarta, a leading Ukrainian agricultural group, to support the construction of the country’s first soy protein concentrate plant. This investment is in line with up to $80 million financing package approved by IFC’s Board of Directors on April 1, 2025. The project is expected to boost employment, enhance agricultural productivity, and drive economic growth.

The financing package includes a $27 million loan for IFC’s own account, and a $13 million concessional loan from the government of the Netherlands. IFC’s financing is backed by guarantees from the European Commission’s Ukraine Investment Framework, and the government of the Netherlands in support of IFC’s Economic Resilience Action (ERA) Program for Ukraine.