KYIV, July 26 – Ukraine’s government has promised to scrap grain shipment bans that were arbitrarily imposed by some regional heads in recent weeks.
Vasyl Soroka, head of the agriculture ministry’s grain markets department, told a news conference late on Tuesday that such bans on grain shipments had been imposed in the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine and in Crimea.
Traders and analysts complain that similar barriers are in force in some other regions.
Senior officials concurred.
“Nine regions are hit by poor grain crops this year, and they must have a chance to buy grain from 13 other regions rich in grain,” said Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Hlady.
“We have already warned all regional officials that such bans are inadmissible and illegal,” he said. “Such bans are a direct violation of recent presidential decrees and we will punish all culprits.”
Last month President Leonid Kuchma signed a decree aimed to boost state controls over grain movements in a bid to make them more transparent.
Analysts say local agicultural bosses a shortage of bread-making grains this season and hope to leave as much grain as possible in regional stocks. “Expecting a shortage of food grain later this season, regional authorities are trying to replenish their stocks with wheat, aiming to market it later,” said Serhiy Feofilov, director of UkrAgroConsult agricultural consultancy.
“Regions expect that this season’s average grain prices will be much higher than last season.”
Traders say third-class wheat is selling at some Hr 700 ($129) per ton, against Hr 240 ($44) a year ago.
Ukraine plans to harvest 24.5 million tons of grain in the 1999/2000 season, including 11.2 million tons of wheat. This compares with a meagre crop of 24.4 million tons in 1998/1999, which included 13.5 million tons of wheat.
The former Soviet republic exported some three million tons and imported about 350,000 tons of grain in 1999/2000, compared with six million tons sold abroad in 1998/99 and a meagre 30,000 tons imported in the same period.
