The public association "Ukrainian Agrarian Forum" sent an official appeal to the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and members of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDCU) with a call to not impose sanctions against mineral fertilizers produced in the Russian Federation and not to harm the domestic agricultural market.

On May 16, in the framework of Agri Invest Forum 2018, the first discussion of representatives of the agrarian sector and the chemical industry will take place in Ukraine.

"We urge you to be consistent and to take into account the position of Ukrainian agrarians, and not to impose restrictive measures (sanctions) against the import of Russian mineral fertilizers to Ukraine," the statement reads.

According to the report, on May 2, 2018, the NSDCU considered the issue of imposing sanctions against Russian businessmen, officials and companies. 

Agrarian associations emphasize that such intentions of the National Security and Defense Council are in contradiction with the president's statements on the synchronization of Ukrainian sanctions with the US, which do not provide for restrictive measures against the chemical products of the aggressor country. In addition, the ban on the import of Russian fertilizers will lead to significant damage to the domestic agrarian sector.

At present, Russian producers cover 21.8% of domestic nitrogen fertilizer consumption in Ukraine and 77.3% - phosphorus fertilizers.

According to Mikhail Sokolov, deputy head of Ukrainian Agricultural Council, the sudden disappearance of Russian fertilizers from the Ukrainian market will cause their acute shortage, which will not be promptly completed and will lead to a sharp rise in prices in the domestic market. In Ukraine, prices for fertilizers on the domestic market are 40-50% more than the world prices.

Sokolov confirmed that domestic plants, in present conditions, cannot reduce the prices of fertilizers because of their own non-competitiveness, since they are forced to make them from expensive gas or ammonia. Because of this, the cost of the Ukrainian finished product significantly exceeds the cost of fertilizers produced in China, the Middle East, Russia, etc.

Therefore, the only way out of the situation is to provide the plants with its own raw material base - by providing chemical support for domestic blue fuel at cost and construction of synthesis plants that will produce fertilizers from gas coals that are available in Ukraine in surplus.

Agrarian associations stressed that in the short-term, stabilization in the Ukrainian market will be facilitated by the introduction of special term licenses for the extraction of natural gas exclusively for the purpose of producing fertilizers. And in the long term - construction, on the example of China, of synthesis gas plants, which use gas to produce nitrogen fertilizers, which is available in Ukraine in surplus.

Note. According to a research conducted by the NSC "Institute of Agrarian Economics", the consulting agency "Ukragroconsult" and the "Social Monitoring" center on request of the UAC, the loss of the domestic agricultural sector due to the lack of yield due to the high prices for nitrogen fertilizers inside the country, is made annually more than UAH 32 billion.

In Ukraine, prices for nitrogen fertilizers exceed the world by 40-50%. According to surveyed farmers, this is because of corruption in state authorities and the monopoly position of a separate producer - Ostchem group owned by businessman Dmitry Firtash and dictating its rules of the game in the market.

Because of the high prices for fertilizers, farmers use them much less than normal. As a result, Ukrainian soils are being depleted - every year, every hectare of Ukrainian agricultural land loses from 200 to 400 kg of nutrients.