Ukrainian farmers received 1,238 crop receipts for the amount of UAH 8 billion since the beginning of 2019, which is 721 receipts and UAH 4.8 billion more than a year ago, the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture has reported.
According to the ministry, since the introduction of the project in Ukraine in 2015 a total of 2,116 crop receipts were registered for the amount of UAH 14.5 billion. Over 130 companies lend using crop receipts, both Ukrainian and international.
By the number of the receipts 60% are financial ones, providing for relations in cash. The average size of liabilities for one financial crop receipt is UAH 5.8 million, for a commodity one – UAH 8.4 million.
Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture Inna Meteleva on October 21 at a meeting with representatives of the Crop Receipts Project in Ukraine of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) discussed the issue of changing the nature of relations on the use of crop receipts from contractual obligations for operations with securities by introducing separate legislative changes.
“Changes in the legislation will strengthen the balance of interests of the debtor and the creditor, as well as expand the business opportunities of working with crop receipts, which will provide the prerequisites for the development of refinancing,” Head of the Crop Receipts Project in Ukraine Leah Soroka said.
In the near future it is planned to submit these changes for discussion with stakeholders and interested central executive bodies to form a consolidated position.
The Crop Receipts project in Ukraine is being implemented by IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, in partnership with the Swiss Confederation. The practical application of crop receipts began in 2014 in Poltava region. Soon other regions of the country joined this financial tool.
Budget receipts from tourism fee in Ukraine in 2018 increased by 29.2%, to UAH 907 million, and taking into account tax payments the tourism industry raised payments by 20.7% last year, to UAH 4.2 billion, the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade has reported.
“This indicates an increase in the volume of domestic tourism flows and the effectiveness of implementation of the decentralization reform, namely local fiscal discipline improvement,” the agency said.
The ministry added there were also qualitative changes in the structure of foreign tourist flow to Ukraine in 2018. According to the ministry’s press release, the State Border Service recorded an increase in the number of tourists from the countries not bordering Ukraine, particularly Europe: from Spain by 68% Britain by 47.3%, Lithuania by 23.4%, Italy by 15.4%, Germany by 13.3%, and France by 9.2%.
The number of tourists from India over the past year rose by 57.4%, China by 38.8%, Japan by 38.3%, Israel by 21.7%, and the United States by 19%, while cross-border traffic, on the contrary, declined, the ministry said. According to the authority, this was achieved thanks to visa liberalization, and an increased offer of direct and low-cost flights.
The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has said the international crop receipts could be launched in spring 2019, IFC Project Manager for Ukraine Crop Receipts Helen Fairlamb said at a roundtable in Kyiv on Wednesday.
The IFC has already conducted the first trainings for farmers and hopes to see the first deals in the spring, Fairlamb told Interfax-Ukraine.
As the IFC said, after the entry into force of the law on currency and foreign exchange transactions, farmers can raise funds on crop receipts from nonresident creditors. According to the international receipts mechanism developed by IFC, such transactions will include a financial crop receipt and a loan/forward contract or an import contract.
Crop receipts are particularly relevant in Ukraine, where the land moratorium still exists, and farmers do not have a quality guarantee to attract financing. In addition, crop receipts are registered in the online register, and the lender can see how many receipts the farmer has and performs, Regional Manager for Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine at IFC Jason Pellmar said.
He added that crop receipts help farmers create a credit history to further raise funds.
According to the IFC, under the crop receipts project, it is also planned to modernize the legislation to create a secondary market for crop receipts (securitization).
Member of the Board of OTP Bank Alla Biniashvili said that for banks providing financing on crop receipts, the difficulty is that the National Bank considers these loans as unsecured.
The total amount of crop receipts in 2018 exceeded $200 million (UAH 5.24 billion). In total, 669 crop receipts were issued from 53 lenders for 1.1 million tonnes of agricultural products used as collateral.
From the beginning of 2019 as of February 12, 2019, a total of 104 receipts were issued to the amount of over UAH 1 billion.
