Co-chairs of the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Forum and representatives of professional associations in the field of agriculture sent letters to the Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov, the heads of parliamentary fractions and groups ("Batkivshchyna", "UDAR", "Svoboda", "Party of Regions”, Communist Party, the Group "Economic Development", the Group “Sovereign European Ukraine”), Deputy Chairman of Fraction of Party of Regions in Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Serhiy Tigipko, Chairman of the Committee of Verkhovna Rada on National Security and Defense Volodymyr Lytvyn with a request for urgent adoption of a package of bills that will help to destroy the source of corruption in agricultural sector, eliminating unnecessary permissions and procedures.

"We hope that with the active work of Verkhovna Rada we finally manage to eliminate at least the main corruption mechanisms in agricultural industry. Therefore, the leading professional associations, which express the opinion of tens of thousands of businesses and 4.6 mln employees in agricultural industry of Ukraine, are calling the new Government to assist in urgent adoption of a package of bills that would eliminate unnecessary permissions and procedures which do not exist in the EU countries, United States, Russia, and only create bureaucratic pressure on agricultural producers, braking development of the industry”, said Volodymyr Lapa, Director General of Association "Ukrainian Agribusiness Club".

In particular, farmers asked the power authorities urgently adopt the following bills:

No.2459. The draft law on amendments to the Law of Ukraine "On grain and grain market in Ukraine” (about deregulation of the grain market) – it cancels the obligatory certification of grain quality;

No.2609a. The draft law on amendments to certain legislative acts of Ukraine (to ensure the safe operation of agricultural machinery) – it cancels the obligatory technical inspection of agricultural machinery;

No.3008. The draft law on amendments to certain laws of Ukraine on State regulation of plant protection products market – it cancels aprovals on imported plant protection products;

No.3237. On introduction of amendments to certain legislative acts of Ukraine regarding clarification of notaries’ authorities and registration specifics of derived property rights to land plots for agricultural purposes" – it cancels the dual registration when registering a lease;

No.3316. The draft law on amendments to certain legislative acts of Ukraine regarding the sustainable use of agricultural land – it cancels the mandatory of rotation projects and a number of documents in the registration of lease rights.

"We also stress on the inadmissibility of returning to the idea of the previous Cabinet of Ministers concerning not refunding VAT on grain export. Thus, at the end of the last year the Government has several times tried to make grain producing the only industry in Ukraine, which could not claim for VAT refunding when exported grain. Adoption of such proposals would have led many enterprises to the bankruptcy and increasing of social tension. Also reducing the income of the farmers in this case would put into question the possibility of effectively carrying out spring sowing cycle» - said Marian Zablotskyy, Chief Analyst of Ukrainian Agrarian Association.

In its turn, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Association "Union of poultry farmers of Ukraine” Oleksandr Bakumenko noted that agricultural sector has faced a number of significant challenges for the recent years. It is about the impossibility to cultivate lands because of inefficient system of agricultural land lease registration, non-system transformations in the sphere of land relations and commercialisation of the role of State agents in the agricultural markets.

"It is critically important to keep the tax incentives for farmers in the fixed tax and special VAT regime  for agricultural enterprises (producers). While the EU and the United States don't cancel the crazy grants for their farmers, Ukrainian farmerss, unfortunately, will continuously require at least tax benefits to be able to compete on international markets" - said Oleksandr Bakumenko.

Experts stressed that farmers were losing billions UAH annually for informal payments to officials for permits and procedures that are absent in the civilized countries of the world. A number of bills aimed at eliminating corruption in agriculture were registered in Verkhovna Rada and unanimously supported by the relevant committees, but their consideration in the Assembly Hall was blocked by request of the representatives of the previous Government.

"It is well known that the agricultural sector of economy is one of the basic industries that is capable to provide growth even under conditions of economic crisis than was confirmed by the experience of 2008-2009. We assure you that farmers and representatives of the food industry will make maximum efforts to maintain the pace of agriculture development in the uneasy economic conditions, taking into account the proposed legislative changes" - added Gennadiy Novikov, Head of the Agrarian Union of Ukraine.