Domestic agricultural producers complain of logistical problems caused by the lack of locomotives and, consequently, the low turnover of grain carriages.

Due to constant delays in the supply of cars, agrarians often break off foreign economic contracts. However, even when enterprises have a private car park, they still do not have time to quickly ship products due to the low turnover of cars, which sometimes reaches 20 days. Therefore, the admission of private traction to the Ukrainian market will increase the turnover of grain carriages and the uninterrupted export of agrarian products.

As the founder of the “Trade and Industrial Company “Vikom”, Oleg Markin, noted, a subsidiary of his company - Komarovetsky Bread Reception Enterprise (Khmelnytsky region), is currently unable to provide planned shipment of grain due to problems with the railway.

"The maneuver locomotive operates at 3 stations, and even if there are free carriages for loading, they are sometimes not served within 3-5 days. We are ready to buy a maneuver locomotive for the company, install electronic rail scales, but we can not do it without state assistance," said Markin.

According to him, from 2015, the company is undergoing reconstruction of existing capacities and installing new ones for storage and drying of grain with the attraction of EBRD and World Bank funds. And because of the problems with the railway, the second stage of the reconstruction of the enterprise with the attraction of investments in the amount of about 1 million dollars was the threat of failure.

A representative pf LLC “Forward” (Sumy region), Anton Parkhomenko was also in a difficult position.

"As of the beginning of October, we still export the volumes to be shipped back in August. From August we still have to ship about 50 tons of rape and 380 tons of wheat. The delay is due to the banal delay of wagons," he said.

According to Oleksandr Kovalenko, head of LLC "East Agro Service" (Chernihiv region), his company carries out transportation exclusively through leased cars, but the lack of locomotives and in its case causes significant delays in shipment of products.

"At our station wagons can stand for 12 hours because of lack of traction. But this is not even the only problem. Delays often occur in ports. The fact is that when shipping products in the port preference is given to public wagons, and therefore companies that have taken advantage of the leased rolling stock, can idle up to 7 days ", - said agrarian.

At the same time, agricultural producers face significant problems in connection with the closure of railway stations. For example, in the year 2018, the “Agroprodservis” LLC (Ternopil region) built a 25,000-tonne elevator with simultaneous storage at the “Denysiv-Kupchyntsi” station, which “Ukrzaliznytsya” closed, justifying its loss-making. However, according to Taras Baran, commercial director of “Agroprodservis”, the company has the capacity to load 12 cars per day.

"We have the opportunity to ship 12 cars per day - 680 tons per day. Our elevator is fully loaded. In order to take out all contracted products, we need about 300 wagons per month ", - he marked.

Another station used by “Agroprodservis” is “Kozova”. However, there companies have to wait for the shipment about two weeks because of lack of maneuvering traction.

Recall that on September 6, the meeting of the Committee on Agrarian Policy and Land Relations took place, attended by Deputy Chairman of the Ukrainian Agricultural Council Mikhail Sokolov. He noted that the admission of private traction to the Ukrainian market is a priority task for resolving the "logistical collapse".