By KYIV. Nov 1 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Since its presentation to the European Commission, three companies have tried to use the mechanism for licensing the export of four agricultural crops prohibited from import by Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania – wheat, rapeseed, sunflower and corn, but were refused by the receiving countries, reported Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Mykola Solsky at a press lunch in Kyiv on Tuesday.
“About three companies applied (sent packages of documents to the Ukrainian government), but there were refusals from other countries,” he said.
The minister clarified that the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food recommended that Ukrainian agricultural businesses refrain from submitting documents to export these crops to neighboring European countries until they signal their readiness to purchase Ukrainian agricultural products.
According to his forecast, the first country that could give such a signal could be Bulgaria, which refrained from introducing a unilateral ban on the import of Ukrainian agricultural products.
Solsky suggested that the crop that this country would be ready to import from Ukraine, first of all, would be sunflower. He justified his forecast by the compromise reached within Bulgaria between farmers and processors on the opening of the market for the import of Ukrainian sunflower from December 1. Until this point, local producers of sunflower oil, according to the Bulgarian government, will be able to buy the sunflower seeds produced by farmers and they will need an additional 1.5 million tonnes of raw materials.
According to the minister, there was a drought in Bulgaria this season, which affected the sunflower yield, which on average in the country is 1.5 tonnes/ha, which is almost two times lower than the sunflower yield in Ukraine.
