New rules prohibiting the export of agricultural products to the EU, in particular grain, at prices below the officially established minimum, will not take effect until August. This was announced by the Deputy Minister of Agriculture of Ukraine Mikhail Sokolov, writes UNN.
"I don't expect this to happen before August," Sokolov said at an online meeting with analysts and traders, according to Reuters.
It is noted that the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has developed calculations to establish minimum export prices for some agricultural products to increase income. The new rules will apply to the supply of wheat, corn, sunflower oil, soybeans, rapeseed and some other agricultural products.
Now the minimum allowable export prices will be calculated based on data from the state customs service, taking into account the terms of delivery for the previous month and using a 10% discount.
According to Sokolov, in order for the new rules to work, it is still necessary to adopt a number of government documents.
Journalists focus on the fact that after the beginning of Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine and disruptions in the supply of Ukrainian agricultural products, some types of agricultural products of Ukraine are purchased for cash inside the country, and exports are carried out at artificially low prices to avoid taxes.
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Earlier it became known that the Bureau of Economic Security is investigating several criminal proceedings related to "gray" grain exports. According to law enforcement officers, the most common scheme of such tax evasion for tens of millions of hryvnia is the purchase of grain that does not have documents of origin for cash and its further export abroad with the help of rickvisits of "risky" or shell companies.
One of the most striking examples of "gray" exports are criminal cases that relate to "gray" exports from the Olympex grain terminal in 2021-2023, when it was actively managed by Odessa businessmen Sergey Groza and Vladimir Naumenko.
In particular, in January 2021, law enforcement officers were interested in a number of companies engaged in grain exports and associated with the agricultural holding GNT Group of Sergey Groza and Vladimir Naumenko. Ferko LLC, Metallzyukrain Corp LTD, Inzernoexport Grain Transshipment Complex LLC and Vtormetexport enterprise, belonging to the GNT Group, actively used the details of "risky" enterprises to carry out export operations. During the investigation, the territorial department of the BEP in the Odessa region identified at least three such "risky" enterprises: OUTSTAFF 19 LLC, ALICENTA TRADE LLC and SOLTEK PRODUCT LLC. In addition, the investigation found that the exported grain was stored, in particular, in the warehouses of Olympex Coupe International LLC, which is also controlled by Groza and Naumenko.
According to the results of the investigation, law enforcement officers found that none of the mentioned "risky" enterprises has evidence of the purchase of cereals that were planned to be exported, which is more than 2 thousand tons of corn, barley, wheat (this is only what was discovered by law enforcement officers during searches). In addition, all these enterprises violated the requirements of financial and tax reporting, demonstrated zero profitability, and underestimated income tax.
Only within the framework of this criminal proceeding, according to law enforcement officers, the Groza and Naumenko companies caused damage to the state in the amount of almost UAH 37.5 million. At the same time, the exporter of "gray" grain was LLC "Agiros", which belongs to the famous smuggler Vadim Alperin, against whom the NSDC imposed sanctions in 2021 and who was deprived of Ukrainian citizenship. And these grains were shipped, according to media reports, by another company controlled by Groza and Naumenko, Atoll Granum.
Currently, this criminal proceeding is still under investigation.
One more thing criminal proceedings, in which Groza and Naumenko's company Olympex Coupe International LLC appears, are being investigated by the territorial department of the BEB of the city of Kiev. It was opened a year later, in 2022, but also concerns the "gray" grain exports.
The case is being investigated under articles on tax evasion, forgery of documents for state registers, legalization (laundering) of proceeds from crime, and illegal handling of weapons or ammunition.
The scheme according to which the Groza and Naumenko company operated is identical to the one used earlier, only the names of fictitious companies differ, and even then not all. In particular, it includes what has already been mentioned in another criminal proceeding of OUTSTAFF 19 LLC.
In addition to this company, they also used the "risky" enterprises "EXPRESS ALL" and "AGROTRANS GROUP". With their help, according to the investigation, at least 40 thousand tons of cereals and oilseeds disappeared from the terminal in 2023.
In addition, BAB detectives believe that criminal activity related to tax evasion by "gray" grain exports continues at the Olympex terminal .