Ukrainian farmers announced “organized sabotage”
Ukrainian customs “groundlessly closed the import of mineral fertilizers from abroad, thereby jeopardizing next year’s harvest.”
Deputy Chairman of the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Rada, Mikhail Sokolov, announced this at a press conference in Kyiv, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
The basis for blocking imports was a letter from the director of the department for combating customs violations of the State Fiscal Service with a demand to ensure enhanced control over the import of mineral fertilizers. The problems of farmers were not limited to this - since fertilizers could not be loaded into wagons, Ukrzaliznytsia began to charge importers for idle time of wagons.
“We have every reason to believe that organized sabotage has begun in the country, aimed at destroying the locomotive of the Ukrainian economy - the agricultural industry,” says the official statement of the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Rada.
“On December 7, they abruptly began to block the import of all fertilizers. This happened unexpectedly thanks to a letter from one of the heads of the State Fiscal Service. The essence of the letter is that we must fight Russian smuggling,” said Mikhail Sokolov.
At the same time, imports were stopped not only from Russia, but also from other countries - Poland, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Turkey. Currently, a volume equivalent to 53% of monthly fertilizer consumption in Ukraine is idle at customs.
Supply disruptions began even before customs blocked imports, causing fertilizer consumption to plummet.
“Thanks to the policy that is being pursued, we have minus 35% consumption of potassium phosphate group fertilizers,” he said. Supply restrictions caused prices to rise even before the customs “collapse.”
“We are already overpaying 30-40% of the world price,” he said.
Sokolov suggested that this is being done in order to force farmers to buy fertilizers from the Agrarian Fund at a higher price.
“The prices of the Agrarian Fund are higher (imported) and I have the feeling that they are trying to force us to buy from the Agrarian Fund,” he said.
Sokolov added that the reduction in fertilizer application jeopardizes next year's harvest.
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