The VAT-refunding issue has driven many up the wall in Ukraine. This concerns both a number of branches of the national economy and some business entities. What worries me is the agricultural sector. The very sector of Ukrainian economy that, for the past two years on the row, has been showing a positive trend in output growth, earning hard currencies for the coffers, as well as carrying half-Ukraine on its broad shoulders.
Ukraine’s grain export in January-June, the second half on the 2009-10 marketing year, is likely to total 6 million metric tons, the Ukraine Agrarian Confederation said Friday.
The further growth of grain export volumes from Ukraine is impossible without the development of the appropriate infrastructure, especially sea and river elevators, according to the analytical note of the investment group Socrates.
Louis Dreyfus Commodities Ukraine, a Ukrainian daughter company of one of the largest grain trading companies in the world - Louis Dreyfus Negoce S.A. (France) - has stopped purchasing grain at Ukrainian elevators.
“By and large, the situation concerning fuel supply for agrarians has been at least as good in 2009 as it was in 2008”, commented Yevgeniy Orel, Deputy Director General, Ukrainian Agrarian Confederation (UAC). It has been possible to avoid critical disruptions with the fuel supply. In the current year, according to the estimates of Ministry for Agrarian Policy, the estimated technological demand (ETD) for diesel fuel in the agrarian sector amounted to 1.5 million MT, gasoline 0.41 million MT. Of these amounts, the autumn field works required 530,000 and 139,000 MT respectively.
In September 2009, grain export volumes from Russia totaled nearly 2 mln tonnes as opposed to 2.2 mln tonnes in August of the current year. At the same time, railway grain shipment grew from 550 to 600 thsd tonnes, informed the analytical center of “Rusagrotrans”.
Ukraine harvested 42.3 million metric tons of grain in the year to Oct. 16 on 14.4 million hectares, or 92% of the total area to be harvested, with an average yield of 2.94 tons a hectare, the Agriculture Ministry said Monday.