The Ukrainian Agri Council categorically opposes the authorities' initiative to abolish VAT for exporters of raw materials. Instead of taking money from exporters, it is necessary to develop a system of incentives for processors. Dmytro Kokhan, adviser of the UAC Chairman to the chairman mentioned this in a comment to the "GORDON" publication.

According to him, the abolition of VAT for exporters will not help to launch large-scale processing. This requires financial resources and stability in the state.

"The authorities justify this initiative by the fact that all raw materials should be processed in Ukraine. But in order to develop the processing industry, money and time are needed. Small producers do not have such opportunities, so they will simply sell products to large enterprises. And they begin to reduce the purchase price, realizing that the producer will not go anywhere anyway, this is how initiatives work in our realities. Therefore, of course, processing should be developed, but it should be stimulated in different ways, for example, by attracting additional funds, creating preferential conditions, and not by banal ignoring situation of raw materials producers," the adviser explained.

He emphasized that the state should make every effort to stimulate the development of the processing industry in Ukraine.

"Nowadays, when there is a war in the country, no one will invest money in processing, even if the export of all grain from Ukraine is banned. As for post-war recovery, instead of canceling VAT for exporters of raw materials, the state should become the one who starts these processes and find funds for the construction of factories to provide soft loans," Dmytro summarized.