According to The State Fiscal Service of Ukraine, in 2014 the agricultural production was exported in the amount of 16,7 billion of US dollars, which is 1,8% less than last year. At the same time the level of import decreased by 25,8% to 6,1 billion of US dollars. The share of the agricultural production in the export increased by 4 points to 30,9%, and the trade net totaled 10,6 billion of US dollars, which is by 20,4% higher, than in 2013. This was stated by the association “Ukrainian Agribusiness Club” (UCAB).

Currency earnings are extremely important for maintaining the stability of economic situation in the country. Especially now when Ukrainian economy is in the crisis condition and the total inflow of the foreign currency decreased by 15% in 2014.

Over the past years agriculture and metallurgy were the main sources for generating foreign currency earnings into our country, though the last one was occupying the first place with the received amount of foreign currency. Metallurgy suffered much more serious losses for the last year than agriculture due to the fact that the majority of the companies of this sector are based in Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Thus, the metal export has decreased by 13.1%. The agriculture business has also suffered losses, though they were mostly caused by the letdown of the economy. Therefore, in 2014 the AIC became the sector with the highest level of the foreign currency earnings. In addition, two products of this sector were included into the TOP-3 most exported goods: sunflower oil (3,6 billion of USD) and corn (3,4 billion of USD).

“In circumstances when the agricultural sector is the only stable source of foreign currency revenue, it is important to create all conditions for the normal operation of the companies of the sector, because any restriction can lead to losses and the production reduction. The example of such negative changes can be the cancelation of VAT refunds to agrarians that. Our government should move to long-term planning of economic development, consider the effect of innovations and equal working conditions for the sector, because the VAT refunds for the metallurgic companies are in much greater volume”, - UCAB Director General Taras Vysotskyi said.

As usual, the most exported agricultural goods were: sunflower oil (21,3% of total agricultural export), corn (20,1%), wheat (13,7%), “oil cake”, besides soybean and peanut (5,6%) and rapeseed (5,2%). Thus, grain crops got 39% from the total export of agricultural products, and fats and oils – 23%.

Association "Ukrainian Agribusiness Club"  

3 floor, 146 Zhylianska Str.

01032 Kyiv, Ukraine

Phone/Fax: +380 44 2362097/79

[email protected] 

Tetyana Kotyk 

www.ucab.ua 

The Association "Ukrainian Agribusiness Club" (UCAB) www.ucab.ua  was founded in 2007 to protect the economic and professional interests of players of agribusiness in Ukraine. UCAB is a unique platform in Ukraine for establishing business contacts between the leaders of agribusiness, improvement their work and dialogue with the government. UCAB actively supports Ukrainian producers in establishing and maintaining international business relations. The Association consists of the largest producers and processors of agricultural products in Ukraine.