Practically on the outskirts of Lutsk — between the DPZ district and KHP-2 — an unusual structure can be seen from afar. It attracts attention not only with its silvery "techno"-style lines, but also with a rather unconventional history of use. And at first, everything at "Bonita" was as it should be... At the end of June 1997, President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma visited Volyn on an emergency visit. Since the Kamin-Kashyrskyi district had suffered a powerful blow from the elements, the head of state could not ignore this emergency event. Having seen the terrifying consequences inflicted on a significant part of the region by a destructive tornado, Leonid Danylovych ordered appropriate measures to be taken. In addition to Kamin-Kashyrskyi and Ratniv districts, the program of Leonid Kuchma's stay in Volyn included other sites. Among them — an enterprise with foreign investment, "Bonita." It was here that the heads of the Ukrainian-Swiss joint venture showed the head of state and the persons accompanying him samples of their pasta products and shared rosy plans for prospective development. Judging by the reaction, the President of Ukraine was pleased with what he saw. By the way, his then press secretary Dmytro Markov also emphasized this, with whom we actively communicated on the territory of "Bonita." And there really was something to see. Founded in 1996 by the company "Bonita Food Production Ltd," the enterprise had reached a production capacity of 40 tons of pasta products per day. The statutory fund of the Ukrainian "Bonita" — 14 million US dollars, moreover, 25% of the shares belong to the Swiss citizen Felix Zivi, 32% — to Swedish investors, and another 43% — to the American investment fund "Ukraine." No one knew then that not even 6 years would pass before the situation around "Bonita" would change beyond recognition, and in some of its consequences would resemble almost what happened during the natural disaster in Polissia. Only this time, torn from the ground on which the production capacities are located — in the literal and figurative sense, not trees, but an entire enterprise. And not by a hurricane, but by human hands. Can it really be so? Ukrainian realities show that it can. True, experience teaches that this will not last long. And this enterprise with foreign investment attracted attention quite recently, when one of our fellow journalists at a press conference in the city executive committee asked Mayor Anton Kryvytskyi what was happening around the land plot on which the production module of "Bonita" stands? The story is this: two different structures are simultaneously laying claim to one and the same production premises. Contradictions arose in 2002, when the vice-president of "Bonita Food Production Ltd," Daniel Schmid, sold to the LLC "Escape" the refrigerated premises where the administrative building is located. The actual owners opposed this, contesting the deal. And while court proceedings regarding this real estate continue (decisions of commercial courts periodically recognize the correctness of either one structure or the other), the situation was further complicated by a dispute over the land plot on which the pasta enterprise is located. So at the press conference, Anton Kryvytskyi responded to this as follows: — One of the firms presented us with documents for the premises, that is, that it is the owner of these premises. According to our land legislation, a legal or natural person who has the right to the premises, that is, to the real estate object on this land, has the right to privatize the land plot. We then said: since you have the right to the structures, then you have the right to the land: buy it! Then at the session a decision was made to allocate the land for purchase... The other side makes claims. But let it make them not to us, but to those people who have documents for the right of ownership of these objects. If they win the right of ownership to the objects in court, then the right of ownership to the land will pass to them. And then they will sue with us (or with them) regarding who should return the money spent on purchasing the land. But that will already be the second stage. Because returning budget money back is very difficult... Sviatoslav Kravchuk, first deputy mayor of Lutsk and secretary of the city council, elaborated: — The session adopted the decision, but they have not actually paid the money for the land yet. And our decision has been appealed in court. What decision the Commercial Court of Volyn Oblast will adopt regarding the land plot with an area of 1.032 ha, it is now difficult to state unequivocally. Because the practice of previous court hearings shows that the prevailing arguments may appear on either side of the scales. The same Lviv Appellate Commercial Court, for example, on January 9, 2003 returned the appeal of LLC "Escape" and the materials attached to it to the appellant, and then initially recognized the submitted materials as sufficient (August 26, 2003), and then (December 16, 2003) ruled: "To grant the appeal," canceling "the decision of the Commercial Court of Volyn Oblast of December 10-12, 2002 in case No. 4/129-88" in favor of LLC "Escape." It is clear that the JV "Bonita" began appealing in cassation the ruling signed in Lviv... The director of the enterprise with foreign investment "Bonita (Lutsk)," Ivan Shumytskyi, who represents one of the parties to this case, explained on this matter: — At the time the decision on the sale of the land plot was adopted by the 9th session of the Lutsk City Council, there indeed existed two purchase-sale agreements for the building located on this territory. And these documents were at the disposal of the city council apparatus. The difference between these owners was that the purchase-sale agreement for the building between "Bonita" (Switzerland) and LLC "Escape" was recognized by the Volyn Commercial Court as invalid, and the ownership right that had been registered in the BTI was annulled on the basis of this court's decision. And the second owner — "Bonita" (Lutsk) — had a purchase-sale agreement for the above-mentioned premises between "Bonita" (Switzerland) and "Bonita" (Lutsk), which was in force at the time the session adopted the decision on the sale of the land plot (and is in force to this day), and the ownership right to this premises from March 24, 2003 was registered in the Bureau of Technical Inventory of Volyn Oblast under the JV "Bonita" (Lutsk)! What other arguments do officials need to prepare objective information that will serve as a foundation for deputies and city council leadership to adopt correct and lawful decisions? Unfortunately, my repeated conversations and written appeals to specific executors who were involved in preparing materials for the session remained without attention. The deputies received a one-sided point of view. That is precisely why we were forced to appeal the session's decision in the Volyn Commercial Court, where (I am convinced of this!) they will act exclusively within the legal field. What can be added here? Perhaps only to suggest that one more party involved in this case be given the opportunity to speak — LLC "Escape," which is registered in one of the villages of Lutsk district. Because, you must agree, no one will deny that the main result of all these metamorphoses would be the normalization of the situation and the return to Volyn and Lutsk of the image of regions where private capital knows how to find common language with government bodies. Because what is JV "Bonita" (Lutsk)? It is, first of all, an enterprise that provides pasta products to 25% of the Ukrainian market, and its products are also in great demand in many European states. Secondly, it is a structure that in the last two years alone has paid almost 2 million UAH to budgets of all levels, providing jobs to a large number of Volyn residents. Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, it is a litmus test for civilized business, by which the assurances of the Ukrainian authorities regarding the immutability of the course of market transformations are tested in practice. There are also other arguments as proof that court proceedings and scandals in Ukraine's information space do not benefit any of the parties involved in one way or another in the conflict. And who suffers first of all are ordinary Ukrainians. For example, everyone knows the situation that has currently developed on the grain market. Thus, JV "Bonita" planned to take a loan in Europe in the amount of 800 thousand US dollars at 8% per annum plus the LIBOR rate for the purchase of high-quality grain, but one of the Swiss entrepreneurs at the last moment refused to be a guarantor of this deal. Problems also arose with the construction of its own grain storage facility with a capacity of 5 thousand tons, however, it turned out that more urgent problems had now arisen.