During the period of martial law, the Verkhovna Rada has simplified the export, import and transit of agricultural products to Ukraine, which will expand the access of farmers to fertilizers and genetic material of farm animals, as well as support the Ukrainian organic industry.
Relevant bill No. 7264 on uninterrupted production and supply of agricultural products during martial law was adopted as a whole at a meeting on May 12 by the votes of 313 MPs, with the required 226 votes, MP Yaroslav Zhelezniak (the Holos faction) said on his Telegram channel on Thursday.
“The task of the state is to simplify farming under martial law as much as possible and reduce the bureaucratic burden on business and government bodies. This applies, in particular, to the state registration of pesticides and agrochemicals, which is extremely important during the spring sowing campaign in 2022. Also it is important to support niche agriculture and organic production,” according to an explanatory note to the bill.
The bill abolishes state registration of agrochemicals imported into Ukraine, including some types of nitrogen fertilizers, ammonium nitrates, ammonia in aqueous solution, thiosulfates, potassium, calcium and aluminum phosphates, borates, zinc chelate and a number of others mineral fertilizers until the end of martial law and for 90 days after its cancellation.
In addition to the simplified import of such types of fertilizers, the bill cancels the state registration procedure for their production, sale, use and advertising.
Bill No. 7264 also proposes, until July 1, 2024, to allow organic producers to use the label “organic,” “biodynamic,” “biological,” “ecological,” “organic,” even if they are not operators of organic products in accordance with law No. 2496-VIII on the turnover of organic products.
According to the explanatory note to the document, this initiative allows Ukrainian producers of organic products that produced according to EU standards, but did not meet the status of an operator of organic products according to Ukrainian standards, to switch to Ukrainian production standards without an additional transition period. It also allows them to qualify for government support.
The bill expands the list of entities that can take samples and conduct phytosanitary examination, in particular, introduces a simplified procedure for involving private laboratory employees in examination until the end of martial law and 90 years after it is canceled, and also authorizes agronomists-inspectors to conduct such inspections to conduct an audit on certification.
In addition, the bill allows the import of cargoes of live animals in transit through countries where there are cases of disease from the list of the World Organisation for Animal Health to Ukraine. According to the authors of the bill, this will allow the Ukrainian livestock industry to gain access to modern breeding genetic material from the EU countries and expand the diversity of breeding material of agricultural animals in Ukraine.
During the discussion of the document at the second reading, the MPs supported the amendment of MP Oleh Kulinich (the deputy group Dovira), specifying that state registration of pesticides is not required in cases where the active ingredient of the pesticide is marked in the EU Pesticides Database as permitted for use.
ANIMALS, FERTILIZERS, IMPORT, PHYTOSANITARY CERTIFICATES, RADA
State-controlled PrivatBank (Kyiv) on May 9 began accepting applications for financing the purchase of fixed assets for a total amount of UAH 500 million, which include agricultural machinery, commercial vehicles and special equipment.
The launch of the corresponding program was announced in a press release from the financial institution.
The bank also announced the completion on May 13 of the Agroseason lending program for agricultural producers, carried out to finance the 2022 sowing campaign under the state program 5-7-9% with interest compensation.
It is specified that over 2,400 Ukrainian agricultural enterprises and farmers have already received loans for UAH 6 billion.
PrivatBank clarified that the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine by resolution No. 28 set the deadline for issuing loans for the sowing campaign until May 31, 2022. Since the bank is currently processing more than 2,000 loan applications, it will limit the acceptance of applications on May 13 in order to have time to process those already received before the deadline set by the government.
The financial institution recalled that under the terms of the state program, lending was available to Ukrainian agricultural producers for a period of six months with compensation from the state up to 0% per annum in the amount of up to UAH 60 million.
As reported, Ukrainian banking institutions for the period from mid-March to May 5 provided loans to farmers under the state program to support the sowing campaign in 2022 for a total of UAH 19.82 billion, including loans and portfolio guarantees for the week of April 28-May 5 for UAH 4.87 billion.
AGRICULTURAL, COMMERCIAL EQUIPMENT FOR UAH 500 MLN, LEND, PRIVATBANK
The European Union will provide an additional EUR 500 million in military assistance to Ukraine, bringing the total amount of aid to EUR 2 billion, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said on Friday.
He said the European Union would provide a new tranche of EUR 500 million to provide military assistance to Ukraine, thus, bringing the total amount to EUR 2 billion.
The export of Ukrainian agricultural products through the EU countries, taking into account deliveries through the Danube river ports, cannot exceed 1.5 million tonnes per month under any circumstances, while before the blockade of its seaports by the Russian troops, the country could monthly transship over 5 million tonnes of agricultural crops per month.
An opinion about a need for Ukraine to work on the launch of new logistics routes and export directions was expressed by First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Taras Vysotsky during the expert discussion “Blocked trade: can Ukraine increase export capacity” on Friday.
“We preliminary calculated that up to 1.5 million tonnes are still the maximum. Therefore, I think that we can count on this until May, and then only alternative directions,” Vysotsky said.
He clarified that Ukraine has enough agricultural products for export, and Ukrainian farmers can supply as much grain as they need to foreign markets, and the volume of its exports is limited only by logistics.
As reported with reference to Minister of Agrarian Policy Mykola Solsky, in April 2022 Ukraine exported 1.09 million tonnes of grain mainly through Romanian ports, which is more than five times higher than in March.
According to him, most of the export deliveries from Ukraine were carried out in April through the Danube river ports, since the Ukrainian Black Sea ports are blocked by Russian warships.
At the same time, the logistics of Ukrainian agricultural products through Romania may become more complicated and slow down in June, when a new crop of Romanian, Serbian, Hungarian and Bulgarian winter wheat and barley will begin to arrive at the seaports of this country and will create competition with supplies from Ukraine.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said he was ready for negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but without his intermediaries and on the terms of dialogue, not ultimatums.
“I am ready to talk with Putin. But only with him. Without any of his intermediaries. And on the terms of dialogue, and not on the terms of ultimatums,” Zelensky said in an interview with the Italian TV channel Rai 1, published on the head of state’s Telegram channel. on Friday.
At the same time, the president noted that the very issue of negotiations with Putin is becoming more complicated day by day.
“Because every day (Russia – IF) small, I would say, towns are occupied, where they live or lived, unfortunately, we state that people lived. Because many of them left their homes. And many people were killed. When we If we de-occupy these places, we see traces of bullying, executions and destruction of infrastructure by the Russian military. And it is precisely because of this that the moments regarding the possibility of negotiations become more complicated,” he said.
Also, according to him, the Ukrainian society itself is not positive about the negotiations between the President of Ukraine and the President of Russia.
Answering the question of what kind of world Ukraine wants, Zelensky replied that it should be Russia’s respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, traditions and people, language and people, society and independence.
“All this was violated by the Russian Federation. It needs to be restored. What does this mean? Withdraw your troops. I’m not saying that we need to return all the loot – but these are not values for us. Values are living people … Please go beyond the borders of our state” he summed up.
The European Commission has presented a set of actions to help Ukraine export agricultural products, the so-called “Solidarity Lanes.”
The plan was presented by European Commissioner for Transport Adina Vălean in Brussels on Thursday.
The European Commission said these proposals are presented as part of the EU solidarity reaction with Ukraine and will help Ukraine export its agricultural products. “Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its blockade of Ukrainian ports, Ukrainian grain and other agricultural goods can no longer reach their destinations. The situation is threatening global food security and there is an urgent need to establish alternative logistics routes using all relevant transport modes,” the European Commission said.
According to the European Commissioner, some 20 million tonnes of grains have to leave Ukraine in less than three months using the EU infrastructure. “This is a gigantesque challenge, so it is essential to coordinate and optimize the logistic chains, put in place new routes, and avoid, as much as possible, the bottlenecks. Our communication addresses the emergency solutions but also medium and long time measures to better connect and integrate Ukraine’s infrastructure with the EU one. For both short-term and long-term solutions, we will work with the Ukrainian authorities and in close collaboration, especially with the neighbouring Member States, who spared no effort in helping during this crisis,” Vălean said.
According to the press release issued in this regard, as of today, in spite of immediate efforts by the EU and its Member States to ease border crossings between Ukraine and the EU, thousands of wagons and lorries are waiting for clearance on the Ukrainian side. “The average current waiting time for wagons is 16 days, while it is up to 30 days at some borders. More grain is still stored and held back in Ukrainian silos ready for export. Among the challenges are differing rail gauge widths: Ukrainian wagons are not compatible with most of the EU rail network, so most goods need to be transhipped to lorries or wagons that fit the EU standard gauge. This process is time-consuming and transhipment facilities along the borders are scarce,” the European Commission said.
In address these obstacles and set up the Solidarity Lanes, the Commission, together with Member States and stakeholders, will work on the following priority actions in the short term.
The first priorities are additional freight rolling stock, vessels and lorries. “The Commission calls on EU market players to urgently make additional vehicles available. In order to match demand and supply and establish the relevant contacts, the Commission will set up a matchmaking logistics platform and ask Member States to designate dedicated Solidarity Lanes contact points (a ‘one-stop-shop’).”
Another priority is the capacity of transport networks and transshipment terminals: the export of Ukrainian agricultural products should be prioritized, and infrastructure managers should make rail slots available for these exports. “The Commission also calls on market players to urgently transfer mobile grain loaders to the relevant border terminals to speed up transhipment. A road transport agreement with Ukraine will also remove bottlenecks,” the European Commission said.
Among the priorities are customs operations and other inspections and storage of products in the EU. To this end, the Commission urges national authorities to apply maximum flexibility and to ensure adequate staffing to accelerate procedures at border crossing points.
In the medium to long term, the Commission will also work on increasing the infrastructure capacity of new export corridors and on establishing new infrastructure connections in the framework of the reconstruction of Ukraine. “The next round of Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) calls for proposals will allow support for projects improving transport connections to Ukraine, including for railway connections and rail-road terminals. Against this background, the Commission today adopted a Decision with a view to signing a high-level agreement with Ukraine, updating the maps for the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T), as part of the Commission’s policy on extending the TEN-T to neighbouring countries.”
