In the Ukrainian club of agrarian business (UCAB) predict that in 2024 Ukrainian farmers will harvest 71 million tons of grain and oilseed crops, which is 13% less than last year. This UNN reported the press service of the organization.
Details
"As for the harvest, the forecasts are as follows - in 2024 Ukraine will harvest 71 million tons of grain and oilseed crops. This is 13% less than the record figures of 2023. At the same time, the gross harvest of grain crops is expected at the level of 50.6 million tons (-15% to the previous year), oilseeds - 20.4 million tons (-6%)," the UCAB reported.
The organization added that the decrease in the harvest compared to 2023 is due to several factors. First of all, the war, because fighting, occupation of part of the territories, damage to infrastructure and logistical difficulties have a negative impact on the capacity of farmers.
The UCAB also noted a slight decrease in the area sown to grain crops. According to them, this happened not only because of the war and the risk of crop loss, which caused some frontline areas not sown this year, but also because of farmers' reorientation to more profitable crops.
Weather will also have a negative impact on crop yields this year. The organization noted that drought, excessive precipitation and other adverse events may cause fluctuations in yields.
In addition, the structure of sown areas has changed: there is an increase in the area under oilseeds. After all, their production is more profitable, there is a possibility of internal processing of oilseeds in Ukraine, and export of smaller volumes of oilseeds is easier to organize in conditions of limited port capacity.
Supplement
The director-general of the Ukrainian Agrarian Business Club, Oleh Khomenko, said earlier that due to the fact that 95% of grain exports take place by sea, ports have much wider opportunities for exporting "gray" grain. The approximate amount of unaccounted grain that is exported from Ukraine can now reach up to 5 million tons per year.
Recall
Earlier it became known that the Economic Security Bureau was investigating several criminal proceedings related to the "gray" export of grain. According to law enforcers, the most common scheme of such tax evasion worth tens of millions of hryvnias is the purchase of grain, which has no documents on its origin, for cash and its further export abroad with the help of details of "risky" or front companies.
One of the vivid examples of "gray" exports are criminal cases that concern "gray" exports exports from the Olympex grain terminal in 2021-2023, when it was actively managed by Odessa businessmen Serhiy Groza and Volodymyr Naumenko.
In particular, in January 2021, law enforcers were interested in a number of companies involved in grain export and related to the agroholding GNT Group of Sergey Groza and Vladimir Naumenko. LLC "Ferko", LLC "Metalsukrane Corp LTD", LLC "Grain Reloading Complex "Inzernoexport" and enterprise "Vtormetexport", belonging to GNT Group, actively used the requisites" risky" companies for export operations. In the course of the investigation, the territorial department of the BEB in the Odessa region identified at least three such "risky" enterprises: AUTSTAFF 19 LLC, ALISENTA TRADE LLC, and SOLTEK PRODUCT LLC. In addition, the investigation found that the exported grain was stored, among other things, in the warehouses of Olympex Coupe International LLC - which is also controlled by Groza and Naumenko.
Based on the results of the investigation, law enforcers found that none of the mentioned "risky" enterprises had no proof of purchase of grains that were planned to be exported - more than 2 thousand tons of corn, barley, wheat (this is only what was found by law enforcers during the searches). In addition, all these enterprises violated the requirements of financial and tax reporting, demonstrated zero profitability, and understated profit tax.
According to law enforcers' calculations, Groza and Naumenko's companies caused almost UAH 37.5m damage to the state within the framework of this criminal case alone. At the same time, the exporter of "gray" grain was Agiros LLC, which belongs to a well-known smuggler Vadim Alperin, against whom the SNBO imposed sanctions in 2021 and who was deprived of Ukrainian citizenship. And shipped these grains, according to media reports, another company controlled by Groza and Naumenko, "Attollo Granum."
This criminal proceeding is currently still under investigation.
Another criminal proceeding involving Groza and Naumenko's company, Olympex Coupe International LLC, is being investigated by the territorial department of the Kyiv City BEB. It was opened a year later, in 2022, but also concerns "gray" grain exports.
The case is being investigated under articles on tax evasion, forgery of documents for state registers, legalization (laundering) of proceeds of crime and illegal handling of weapons or ammunition.
The scheme used by Groza and Naumenko's company is identical to the one used earlier, only the names of the fictitious companies differ, and not all of them. In particular, it includes AUTSTAFF 19 LLC mentioned in another criminal proceeding.
In addition to this company, they also used the "risky" companies EXPRESS ALL and AGROTRANS-GROUP. With their help, according to the investigation, at least 40,000 tons of grain and oilseeds disappeared from the terminal in 2023.
In addition, BEB detectives believe that criminal activity related to tax evasion through gray exports of grain at the Olympex terminal continues.