Odesa Regional Military Administration is called upon to cancel the order regarding early filling of customs declarations

The All-Ukrainian Agrarian Council calls to change or cancel the order of the Odesa Regional Military Administration “On some issues of financial discipline in the conditions of the legal regime of martial law” dated August 18.

The provisions of the document require exporters to submit a customs declaration 10 days before loading the vessel. To fill it, it is necessary to prepare the necessary amount and accumulate grain in the port, as well as to be sure that the ship will receive exactly the grain of the volume and quality specified in the declaration. The cost of the party will depend on these indicators.

As noted in the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Council, in practice it is not possible for most farmers to fulfill such conditions. The association has already been approached by agricultural producers who were refused customs control based on the provisions of this order.

Also, some farmers and traders report that they stopped contacting the Odesa Customs at all due to the impossibility of fulfilling the terms of this order.

As APC-Inform writes, now producers and traders do not stockpile grain in ports in order not to expose people, infrastructure and goods to the danger of shelling from the Russian side. Therefore, now the loading of the ship is mainly carried out immediately from the car to the ship. Moreover, the ports on the Danube do not have enough places to store such volumes of grain, which are subject to preliminary declaration.

“We draw your attention to the fact that the provisions of the Regional Military Administration order are advisory and are not mandatory for business entities. However, the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Council receives signals that the Odesa customs took as a basis and require the mandatory presence of a preliminary declaration of the goods,” the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Council, added.

According to the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Council,, today farmers already feel “excessive bureaucratic pressure at all stages – from production to export of products.”

“Another regulatory mechanism by Odesa Regional Military Administration to those already operating on the basis of laws and regulatory acts is excessive and ill-considered. We hope that the opinion of the business will be heard and the Odesa Regional Military Administrationwill make changes or cancel its order No. 19 of August 18, 2023,” the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Council,  summarized.