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Situation with Ukrainian wheat export to Canada becomes clearer
Following row with detection of fungi in shipments of Ukrainian wheat, delivered to Canada, Ukraine's Ministry of Agrarian Policy started investigation.
Comments about findings of the investigation were given by Head of International Integration, Investment Policy and Agrarian Business Development Department of the Agrarian Policy Ministry Hryhoriy Omelyanenko.
According to him, the above-mentioned shipments were made by a trading company - non-resident of Ukraine. He refused to disclose the name of the company while the trial is underway. He only said that this same company had earlier delivered Ukrainian grain to Brazil, when similar problems arose.
According to Omelyamenko, both times the company prepared "grain cocktail" in holds of the vessels, first time mixing together Ukrainian, Russian and Moldovan wheat and now adding Russian grain to Ukrainian one.
Omelyanenko said Ukrainian legislation prohibits such mixing of grain and related products in export and import operations.
Such "incest", as Omelyanenko put it, was half the trouble, however. The trouble was that the company (or several companies - no exact information is available at the moment), according to Omelyanenko, had forged phyto-sanitary certificates for export grain shipments. The documents, produced by the Canadian party to Ukrainian representatives after the investigation started, were substantially different from those, distributed by quarantine services in the ports of Odessa, Illyichovsk and Nikolayev at departure of the grain. The counterfeited certificates were signed by non-existing officials of the State Quarantine Service, had other than the original ones numbers and showed other tonnage of the shipments than did the original papers, Omelyanenko said.
Mr. Omelyanenko said that there could be two possible explanations to the story: it could be ether an attempt of smuggle of contaminated product abroad by an unconscientiously operating business structure - non-resident of Ukraine. Or it could be a deliberate diversion, which started with Ukrainian grain delivery to Brazil and was aimed at discrediting Ukraine in the world grain market, to put it off the way as an unwanted competitor to more firmly established grain exporters in the global market.