Posted on January, 20, 2025 at 06:17 pm
Ukraine saw a slump in December farm exports after introducing an export regime aimed at curbing tax avoidance on agricultural commodities, the agriculture ministry said last week.
On Dec 1, the government introduced minimum export prices, imposed new controls over shipments by the country’s tax and customs services and limited export authorization to those firms that pay value-added tax.
The aim was to prevent exporters from using artificially low export prices to avoid paying tax, a practice that hurts the national coffers.
“The (drop in) volume of agricultural exports in December 2024 compared to December 2023 is the result of exporters adapting to the new export conditions,” the ministry said in a written comment, without providing figures for the month.
Ukraine’s UGA traders union said key farm commodity export volumes in December fell by almost 35 per cent year on year.
The union said wheat shipments showed the biggest drop.
Ukraine is a global producer and exporter of grain, oilseeds and vegetable oil, but production has fallen sharply since Russia’s 2022 invasion.
UGA data showed that combined grain, oilseed and vegetable oil exports totalled almost 4.7 million tonnes in December, down from 7.2 million a year earlier.
Wheat exports fell to 789,000 tonnes from 1.84 million, while shipments of corn fell to 2.50 million tonnes from 3.12 million, the data showed.
The farm ministry said exports were also down this month, with a Jan. 1-8 total of 705,000 tonnes versus 1.03 million in the same period a year ago.
For the 2024-25 July-June season so far, the ministry said Ukraine’s grains exports had risen to 22.44 million tonnes from 19.42 million a year earlier.
Source: Western Producer