June 3 2003, 18:27 APK-Inform

Agriculture ministry wants to leave export duty for sunseeds intact

Ukraine's Ministry of Agrarian Policy will not initiate any changes of the current 17 percent export duty for sunflower seeds, because everything goes right in the market of sunflower seeds and crushing products and no changes are needed, the Minister Serhiy Ryzhuk said today at the 15th International Exhibition "Agro-2003" near Kiev.

He said Ukraine had ranked the world's second after Argentina in exports of sunflower oil and the price for Ukrainian sunoil in he world market had been higher than Argentinean.

"Why to change the duty if our oilseed industry is working well: the export potential has increased and the domestic market has been stabilised", Ryzhuk said.

At the same time, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister for Agriculture Ivan Kyrylenko said in late April that he thought reduction of the export duty for sunseeds from current 17 to 6 or 7 percent to be expedient, in order to stabilise the market of this crop.