The Agrarian Fund is making payments with farmers on forward contracts, and UAH 846.42 million has already been paid. The grain is currently being re-registered from farmers to certified grain elevators in the state intervention fund.

Director General of the Agrarian Fund Ihor Yakubovych announced this at a press conference on Tuesday, UKRINFORM reported, with reference to AgroNews.

"The program of forward purchases of grain from farmers, which was in effect from March 30 to June 1, 2012 and was aimed at providing financial support for agricultural producers during the sowing season, has now moved to the stage of settling with the Agrarian Fund with grain in exchange for a warehouse receipt," the official said.

In general, he said that agricultural producers had received UAH 846.42 million, of which an advance payment on forward exchange contracts is UAH 806.65 million. The final payment with producers who supplied grain in full is equal to UAH 39.77 million. Cooperation was maintained not only with large agro-holdings, but also with average producers, Yakubovych said.

In general, according to the Agrarian Fund, 675 contracts were signed with 561 producers for a total amount of 878,000 tons.

Yakubovych also said that the dynamics and frequency of the submission of applications from farmers were heterogeneous with respect to the regions, however, there are leading regions and the regions that showed low activity.

"The most active were agricultural enterprises in Vinnytsia, Luhansk and Donetsk regions, which signed forward exchange contracts for a total amount of 86,000 75,000 and 71,000 tons of grain respectively. The smallest number of forward exchange contracts was signed with producers from Kherson region (3,900 tons), Mykolaiv region (8,630 tons) and Crimea (9,930 tons)," he said.

Yakubovych said that the second stage of the program of public procurement was launched on July 1, 2012, when the Agrarian Fund started re-registering grain at certified grain warehouses to the state intervention fund. "As of July 23, 2012, the Agrarian Fund has already received 250,000 tons of grain at its grain warehouses, of which 135,000 tons have already been re-registered. In terms of the amount of re-registered grain, the leaders are Luhansk region, where 43,000 tons have already been registered, as well as Kirovohrad and Donetsk regions - 18,000 tons each," he said.

He added that 66 insurance cases had currently been recorded, or about 10% of the signed exchange contracts. The largest number of insurance cases was recorded in Zaporizhzhia and Mykolaiv regions (eight cases each) and in Crimea (seven cases).

"Insurance companies are currently ready to pay UAH 2.3 million to the Agrarian Fund as a beneficiary under the contracts of the voluntary insurance of the future harvest of grain crops. We see that the program of forward purchases has become an effective tool to support farmers and insure agricultural risks," Yakubovych said.

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