The government is preparing a priority for the export of oil, but meal and cake will not be included in the list

The adopted decision is a compromise in the context of logistics problems, because it was because of the oilcake meal that a conflict between the industries had previously arisen.

The Ministry of Agrarian Policy is preparing a decision that will allow exporting oil as a priority due to logistics problems. This was reported to journalists by the Minister of Agrarian Policy Taras Vysotskyi, Forbes Ukraine writes.

They plan to give preference to oil as a product with added value. Oilcake and oilcake will not be included in the priority list.

According to the minister, discussions with industry associations have already been completed, and they all supported the proposal regarding oil. Now the document must be approved by other ministries, after which it will be considered by the Cabinet of Ministers. Vysotsky did not name the deadlines.

It was the exclusion of oilcake and oilcake that became the key to the compromise. At the end of September, the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Council sharply opposed the priority for oilseeds and their processing products, calling such an approach unacceptable. Deputy Chairman of the VAR, Denys Marchuk, argued then that oilseeds, even without preferences, have an advantage in exports due to the higher cost of products, which more easily covers logistics costs, while for grain products, transportation costs make up a larger share of the final price.

Regarding the oil itself, the VAR’s position is different. Deputy Chairman of the Council, Mykhailo Sokolov, explained that farmers sell grown sunflower to Ukrainian processing plants, so they are interested in the rapid export of finished products.

“Accordingly, it is beneficial for them that sunflower oil is exported as soon as possible. It is extremely unprofitable to export sunflower seeds as raw material: twice as many containers are required for its transportation than for processed products. Therefore, the Agrarian Councilcannot be against the export of oil in any way,” Sokolov noted.

For 13 days of October, Ukraine exported about 50% of its needs, while for oil this figure reaches 68%. For comparison: a ton of oil is four to five times more expensive than a ton of grain, so it is exported more actively even without formal preferences.

Vysotsky recalled that for food products, priority during road transportation is already provided for in the “eQueue” system. However, a similar mechanism has not yet been introduced for grain and oilseed crops.

The day before, USM informed that due to problems with shipping in the Black Sea, Canadian exporters began to crowd out Ukrainian ones on the world market.