News From Agro-Industrial Complex

Grain traders in Ukraine have to reduce purchase prices UAH 200-250 (USD 1/UAH 7.925) due to the huge VAT debts owed them by the government of Ukraine for months, Leonid Kozachenko, president of the Ukrainian Agricultural Confederation (UAC) stated on Monday.

"Agriculture's share of Ukraine's exports has reached 25% and at the same time 56% of total VAT debts have not been returned to us in cash by the government. No single business sector should receive payment for debts in the form of commodities - by grain, spare parts, garments, metallurgists and chemists have no such possibility. It is distortion of a process of the debt return," Kozachenko noted.

Despite losses of winter crops sowing areas in 2010, the general production volumes of the harvest-2010 will stay at the sufficient level for the complete meeting of the domestic requirements of Ukraine, declared the association Ukrainian club of agrarian business.

Ukraine planted spring grains on 3.72 million hectares, or 51% of the planned total area, to April 16, the agriculture ministry reported Monday.

Grain stocks in Ukraine on April 1 totaled 10.2 million metric tons, which is 26% less than on the year-earlier date, the state statistics committee announced Thursday.