January 31 2002, 11:05 UNIAN

Domestic grain market. Regulations from within

To regulate the activity on the domestic grain market, certain funds should be allocated from the State budget, said Ukraine's Reserve Committee Chief Volodymyr Kouratchenko to the Jan 30th press-conference.

According to him, the government should intervene on the domestic market under conditions where surplus of grain may lead to price downfall and for this particular purpose 5-8% of the budget should be targeted.

"This should be enough to prevent domestic price falls which in their turn may result in lowering producer's efficiency as it happened last season", said Kouratchenko.

He also said that certain European countries allocate for such measures up to 20-25% of their budgets.

The State Reserve authorized by the Cabinet has purchased 450,000 Mt of food grain produced in 2001.