The head of the Odessa regional military administration Oleg Kiper in August 2023 by his order strengthened customs control in the region when exporting agricultural products for export, at the same time on the market of export of agricultural products appeared about 40 companies with signs of fictitiousness, reported hromadske in the investigation “Grain Baron”.
The publication noted that through the ports of Odessa in 2023 passed 85 percent of the country’s agro-exports.
When analyzing the data of the Ukrainian customs, access to which is provided by the international service ImportGenius, journalists found 40 companies with signs of fictitiousness, which entered the agro export market after the Odessa OSA established “manual control” over it.
These companies started exporting grain after August 2023. They have never engaged in exports before, were founded or changed owners in 2023, are not part of well-known agroholdings and do not own land.
“The largest by export volume of these firms has the same phone number as another 139 legal entities. And in second place is a company whose founder is probably a psychologist from Uzbekistan, for whom 20 legal entities have been registered in Ukraine over the past two years,” the investigation said.
“Suspicious” companies for the last quarter of 2023 exported through the ports of the Odessa region about 800 thousand tons of agricultural products worth about $ 150 million, or 6 billion UAH, says the publication and recalls that the head of the Odessa Regional State Administration explained the establishment of manual control by the need to fight against one-day companies and so-called “black exports”.
Such one-day companies export grain and do not return foreign currency proceeds to the country, do not pay taxes, have a fake director and do not have an office. After several transactions with a budget of several million dollars, the company disappears.
The chairman of the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Union “Agrarnaya Rada” Dmytro Kohan drew attention to the fact that any manual control has increased risks of corruption.
The Odessa regional military administration refused to comment on the facts revealed by journalists.
