New regulatory initiatives of the government can seriously affect the agricultural sector. This was announced by Denys Marchuk, Deputy Chairman of the Ukrainian Agri Council (UAC), during a briefing at Mediacentre Ukraine.

One of the most controversial challenges for farmers are changes to the rules for setting minimum export prices, which may actually block the export of certain types of agricultural products.

According to the new rules, the minimum export price cannot be lower than the minimum price of the previous month. This means that even if global prices for agricultural products decline, Ukrainian exporters will be forced to sell at higher prices, making them uncompetitive on the international market.

“Exceeding the minimum allowable export prices above the world market prices will lead to blocking the export of the relevant agricultural products. That is why the UAC appealed to the government and called for a revision of this rule to prevent a crisis in the export sector,” emphasized Marchuk.

Another challenge for the agricultural sector was the decision of Ukrzaliznytsia JSC to cancel a 30% discount on the transportation of agricultural products from the frontline regions to Ukrainian ports.

“We, as the UAC, defended this rule and it was introduced in 2023. The recent decision of Ukrzaliznytsia to cancel the 30% discount is disastrous. Farmers working in the frontline areas face huge challenges. Increased logistics costs may simply make their business unprofitable. That is why we called on the government and Ukrzaliznytsia to restore the discount for farmers,” said Denys Marchuk.