Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada's Agrarian Committee backs bill on duty-free imports of grain storage sleeves

MOSCOW. July 14 (Interfax) - Ukraine will need about 80,000 polyethylene sleeves to store the harvested grain, which farms will be accumulating by the end of the season due to grain export problems.

Bill 7548, which lifts the import duties on mobile grain storage facilities, has been registered in the Verkhovna Rada, Ukrainian media outlets said with the reference to the website of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Agrarian and Land Policy.

"Unless our efforts intensify and export routes broaden, our elevators will be full in October, while farmers will sell their harvest dirt-cheap, will fail to pay the rent and will sow no crops next year. We must do everything to preserve the harvest and to support our agrarians. The preferential terms for sleeve procurement are one of those methods," the committee statement quoted its head, bill co-author Oleksandr Haidu as saying.

The duty-free imports of bags, sleeves and special equipment for storing grain in the field will increase their imports by Ukraine and will reduce their cost, he said, adding that the measure would help preserve the harvest while seaports remain blocked and elevators are full.

According to Haidu, Ukraine may harvest about 50 million tonnes of grain in 2022, yet the exports of last year's harvest remain low, about 2.2 million tonnes per month. This means the elevator capacity is insufficient to store grain from last year and this year, and a respective bill needs to be adopted, he said.