A sharp rise in sugar prices in Ukraine has been caused by the commitments assumed by the government of Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to those who financed her previous election campaign, Regions Party leader Viktor Yanukovych has said.
“The goodwill of our opponents representing the current government has resulted in increasing [sugar] imports over the whole period of their rule, because they depended on those who helped them during the previous election. Secondly, they depended on representatives of their political forces and businessmen who are much involved in imports,” he said at a press conference on Thursday.
Yanukovych said that this dependence had resulted in a gradual increase in sugar imports in Ukraine.
Speaking about the government’s activity on the sugar market, he said that around one million people had been dismissed in this sector only last year.
Yanukovych also said that the number of sugar plants in Ukraine had dropped from 119 in 2007 to 49 in 2009.
