New rules aimed at preventing Ukrainian agricultural exports at prices lower than official minimum prices will come into force in August at the earliest, a senior agriculture ministry official said late Wednesday.
The new export pricing mechanism will apply to shipments of wheat, corn, sunflower oil, soybeans, rapeseed and other agricultural products.
Disruptions from the war with Russia led to domestic cash purchases of some Ukrainian agricultural products and exports at artificially low prices to avoid taxes.
The Ukrainian government has developed calculations aimed at setting minimum export prices for certain agricultural products in order to increase revenues.
In accordance with the new rules, the minimum permitted export prices will be calculated based on data from the State Customs Service, taking into account the delivery conditions of the previous month and applying a 10% discount.
“I don’t expect this to happen before August,” Deputy Agriculture Minister Mykhailo Sokolov said in an online meeting with analysts and traders.
In May, Ukraine’s parliament passed amendments to a law introducing the new rules, and Sokolov said the law would come into force on July 1.
Mr Sokolov said a number of government documents still needed to be adopted to launch the minimum price mechanism, but he did not give an exact date for the start of the new procedure.
