Information for fruit and vegetables business in CIS
Ukraine: Agrarian ministry to keep "hawk" policies in sugar market
Agrarian Minister Sergey Ryzhouk said Monday that the Ministry supported those who were opposing cancellation of minimum prices for sugar and sugar beet. Besides that, he said that the Ministry would hold to a hard-core policy concerning Ukrainian sugar market. "We don't need anyone else's sugar. We've got enough ours own," declared Mr. Ryzhouk.
According to the Law of Ukraine "About Market of Sugar" of 1999, the government each year establishes a mandatory minimum selling price for sugar and sugar beet. Wholesales trade of sugar in the market at a price lower than that is considered illegal. For this year the price is an equivalent of US$444.6 per tonne of sugar. About a month ago a bunch of sugar producing companies, representing about 30% of the industry, claimed to lower the price down to the equivalent of about US$375, though their claim was rejected by the majority of sugar producers (see the item on Ukrainian sugar association of July 15).