September 17 2003, 17:31 APK-Inform

Government worried by fieldwork delays through fuel problems

Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine is worried by unsatisfactory rates of autumn fieldwork due to insufficient amount of diesel fuel and shortage of its sales offers at acceptable prices. The concern was expressed by Vice Prime Minister for Agriculture Ivan Kyrylenko at the government's meeting on September 17. Kyrylenko said he had been receiving a number of complaints on the issue from local governors and farmers. He said while the optimal terms for sowing winter crops were September 5 to 15, only 45 percent of the forecast area had been sown as of the date.

Government is also unhappy with the rates of harvest. Vice-Premier said the farmers had harvested to date just 20 percent of sugar beet, 10 percent of maize for grain, 26 percent of sunflower, 80 percent of maize for feed. Autumn-ploughing has been completed on only 26 percent of the forecast area.

On September 3 the Agrarian Policy Minister Serhiy Ryzhuk told reporters that in conditions of ongoing price growth in the fuel market, the farmers' expenditures for sowing campaign might increase at 360 hryvnias per tonne of produced crops (5.33 hryvnias = $1). In that period an agreement was signed with large Ukrainian oil refinery plants about reduced prices and the volumes of supplies of diesel fuel to agricultural producers. But despite this, the fuel prices over the past four weeks have increased 20 to 40 percent, the meeting participants noted.

For September and October the farms need about 670,000 tonnes of fuel, of which 350,000 tonnes - till the end of current month. However, there are just 96,000 tonnes available in farms now, which is 30 percent of the needed amount. The most difficult situation, when the farms have to stop fieldwork for 4-5 days because of absence of necessary fuel stocks, is noted in Vinnitsa, Zhitomir, Chernovtsy, Rovno, Chernigov and Dnepropetrovsk oblasts.