By KYIV. Dec 5 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Ukrainian government is beginning to accept applications for the export of sunflower, rapeseed, corn and wheat to Bulgaria, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food announced on Tuesday.
“The Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Mykola Solsky and the Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of Bulgaria Kiril Vatev agreed on a procedure for the export of certain types of agricultural products. The ministers agreed on this at a regular online meeting. In particular, Solsky and Vatev approved the procedure for applying the “verification procedure for exports to Bulgaria of four crops. These are rapeseed, corn, wheat and sunflower,” the press service of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy said.
According to its report, the export verification regime for four agricultural crops provides to issue licenses after bilateral consultations, after which agricultural products will be exported.
The ministers also agreed to carefully monitor the movement of agricultural products, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy said.
As reported, Bulgaria on December 1, 2023 allowed the licensed import of Ukrainian sunflower, rapeseed, corn and wheat.
According to the Bulgarian publication bntnews.bg, Vatev, during negotiations with his Ukrainian counterpart, insisted on including powdered milk, frozen raspberries and honey in the list of goods subject to verification.
“I agreed with the Ukrainian minister that he inform us about every agreement with Ukraine to Bulgaria: who receives the goods here and who sends them from there. We cannot set prices or stop the deal, but when we see that this distorts our market and our goods are not for sale, we can intervene,” the publication quoted Vatev.
Solsky in November 2023 expressed the opinion that the first front-line country that could lift the ban on Ukrainian agricultural products could be Bulgaria, which after September 15 refrained from introducing a unilateral ban.
In his opinion, the crop that Bulgaria will be ready to import from Ukraine will be sunflower.
In Bulgaria, in the autumn of 2023, a compromise was reached between farmers and processors on the opening of the market for the import of Ukrainian sunflower from December 1. Until this point, local sunflower oil producers, according to the Bulgarian government, must buy back the sunflower seeds produced by farmers and they will need an additional 1.5 million tonnes of raw materials.
Earlier, Head of the Ukroliyaprom industry association Stepan Kapshuk told Interfax-Ukraine that there are 16 oil extraction plants in Bulgaria, which have significantly increased production in the 2022 season and intend to develop the export of sunflower oil, thanks to sunflower seeds imported from Ukraine.
