Agriculture Ministry says firm should be thanked, not fined, for contributing to food safety, economy.
The Antimonopoly Committee fined Pest Control , LTd., an Irish firm that fumigates Ukrainian grain before it is shipped overseas, Hr 133,000 on Dec. 28, having found the firm to have violated a number of laws and to have overcharged the nation’s grain traders.
The committee also faulted the Agriculture Ministry and the national and regional plant quarantine inspection bureaus for creating the non‑competitive environment in which Pest Control was allowed to operate.
Agriculture Minister Serhy Ryzhuk objected to the committee’s conclusions. He said that the company couldn’t have violated antimonopoly laws because the state holds a monopoly on grain fumigation. Pest Control operates under contract to the government.
Ryzhuk said that the company has invested $3.6 million in the country as part of its contract.
“Pest Control finances the technological process of fumigation. We involve Pest Control because there is no money for these operations in the budget. Instead of imposing fines, we should be thanking Pest Control,” Ryzhuk said.
The committee initially planned to impose a Hr 700,000 fine on Pest Control, but reduced the penalty because the firm acknowledged that it was at fault and expressed a willingness to follow Ukrainian law in the future.
Pest Control’s chief executive, Roy Ben Yami, said that he was not satisfied with the committee’s decision, but would accept it.
“We don’t understand [the committee’s] approach,” he said. “We were hoping that the fine would be waived.”
Ryzhuk said he felt that Pest Control’s potential competitors were behind the antimonopoly committee’s actions. He said that firms that lacked the necessary technical expertise wanted into the lucrative grain‑fumigation business.
The Antimonopoly Committee ordered the Agriculture Ministry and the state Plant Quarantine Inspectorate to develop a plan that would create competition in the grain‑fumigation business by March 1, and to implement the plan by June 1. The committee also fined the state quarantine inspectorate Hr 25,000.
