Ships with grain leave ports of Ukraine tomorrow. Quoting Nicolai Prisiazhniuk, Minister for agrarian policy of Ukraine, the decision was adopted today during the meeting with N.Azarov, Prime Minister of Ukraine.
Amid all the doom and gloom, one sector in the country’s economy has a bright future and promises high yields. Despite a deep recession that sent gross domestic product plunging 15 per cent last year, some budding domestic agribusinesses reported double-digit growth.
The United Nation's incoming chief on climate change cautioned Wednesday it could take until 2050 to build the machinery that will ultimately tame greenhouse gases.
In May 2010, grain export from Ukraine amounted to 850,000 MT or twice as less than in May 2009. In particular, there were exported 230,000 MT of wheat, 340,000 MT barley, and nearly 280,000 MT of corn.
Ukraine planted spring grains on 6.35 million hectares, or 83% of the planned total area, to May 7, the agriculture ministry reported Tuesday.
Ukraine will allow bonds issued to cover value-added tax reimbursements to trade on the secondary market, Deputy Prime Minister Serhiy Tigipko said.
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.
It takes political will to “automatize” the VAT refund. Also, it takes insignificant, but meaningful, changes in VAT administering which are to “strike the trump cards” from the hands of those who “dally” over refund referring to the interests of the state – deems Sergei Stoianov, Director General, Ukrainian Agrarian Confederation
This country has deviated too far away from the path of civilized countries. We already got used to various disgraceful practices surrounding our daily life. However notorious they might be, our “ways” and logics of our actions, our administering, our judicial proceedings, our daily life (read: “communal economy”) and many-many other aspects of our itsy-bitsy life are not understandable either to an ordinary foreigner, or to “weather-beaten” top-managers of transnational companies with their subsidiaries in many countries of the World.
Ukraine will increase the planted area for corn, soy and beet in this year's harvest, while the sunflower and barley planted area will be smaller, the agriculture ministry said Wednesday.
As UAC predicted earlier, the price of sugar in Ukraine stopped growing and even began to decline. From the beginning of the year, the wholesale prices fell to UAH 7000 per ton. This trend was caused by several factors. Lack of funds for the planting season was the main reason of decreade in the price of sugar, as it forced farmers to sell their own stocks of sugar, which they held in anticipation of further price increases. Also, sugar prices on the world trading floors plummeted from a peak of $755/MT in late Janaury to $504/MT on March 31, 2010, which has significantly told on Ukrainian domestic prices.