The Ukrainian Agrarian Council, within the framework of the V International Agri Invest Forum 2018 Conference of Agricultural Investors, conducted a survey among the participants on whether they support a government policy aimed at limiting the import of fertilizers from the Russian Federation.

Four hundred fifty representatives of agrarian enterprises located in different regions of Ukraine attended the survey.

According to the poll, 78.9% of farmers expressed opposition to the imposition of anti-dumping duties on Russian fertilizers, and 79.2% did not support sanctions on imports of all types of Russian mineral fertilizers.

The fact is that Russian producers cover 21.8% of domestic consumption of nitrogen fertilizers and 77.3% - phosphorus-containing fertilizers. Therefore, their sudden disappearance from the Ukrainian market will cause their deficits and a rise in prices for mineral fertilizers on the domestic market. At the same time, agrarians pointed that the price of fertilizers on the Ukrainian domestic market today exceeds the world by 40-50% because of the lack of competitiveness of domestic chemical plants.

"The share of fertilizers in the cost of production - 15%, and in the cost of wheat, about 30%. If you ask me, I am advocating forbidding the import of fertilizers from Russia and importing them from China. However, there are logistical problems. Therefore, we need to unite and seek a solution together," noted the chairman of the Ukrainian Agrarian Council Andriy Dykun, noting that the Agri Invest Forum 2018 became the platform for the first in Ukraine dialogue between farmers and representatives of the chemical industry.

83.6% of agrarians see the solution of this problem in the provision of domestic chemical plants with their own raw material base. In particular, through the construction of plants for the production of mineral fertilizers from Ukrainian gas, or the sale of licenses for the extraction of gas for the production of mineral fertilizers.

At the same time, 15.1% indicated that the government should abolish all duties and restrictions on fertilizer imports at all. Only the rest - 1.4% of the farmers advocated the continuation of the government's policy on limiting fertilizer imports.

"In my opinion, the solution to the situation is very simple. Agrarians urge the government to give Ukrainian gas at a cost price to chemists in the short-term.

In the long-term, stabilization on the Ukrainian market will be facilitated by construction, based on the example of China, of synthesis gas plants that use nitrogen fertilizers to produce gas, which is present in Ukraine in abundance," said Mikhail Sokolov, the Deputy Chairman of the UAC.

Oleksiy Golubov, the head of the Union of Chemists of Ukraine, agreed with the proposal of the farmers about the need for the construction of synthesis gas plants.

"The Union of Chemists since the government of Azarov brought up the subject: let's use the Chinese loan of $ 3.65 billion, which was clearly given for these purposes, and let's build such plants in Volyn’ and Pavlohrad. We still haven't been able to resolve this issue either in the previous authorities or in these," noted Golubov.

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 are 40-50% more than the world. According to surveyed farmers, this is the result of corruption in authorities and the monopoly position of a separate producer - Ostchem group owned by businessman Dmitry Firtash and dictating their 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.