raise capital for further expansion. it s paid off. in a december survey by the kiev post he was listed as ukraine s eight ath richest man alongside headlines heralding the rise of the agriculture baron. translator: in order to be successful you have to have hundreds of thousands of hectors of land, the right people to manage the processes like we do, and you have to have the strength to invest a lot of money into projects because investment and our management style is very untypical. reporter: it s what lies beneath the snow which makes this business model work. ukraine s famously fer tile black soil. the reason the country became known as the bread basket of europe. 20 years after the collapse of the soviet union, the agricultural sector lags the rest of europe because of a lack of technology and investment. translator: at the moment, ukraine is gathering anywhere