OREANDA-NEWS. April 07, 2016. As Oleksii Pavlenko, the Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, informed, since the beginning of 2016, the practice of VAT refund on the export of grains and oilseeds was restored, thus increasing the average purchase prices of grain crops.

“In the absence of VAT refund, the exporters used to transfer the financial burden on small and medium producers through undercutting the purchase prices equally to the amount of unreimbursed VAT. The unreimbursed VAT was a de facto export duty at the level of 16.7%”, the Minister stressed.

“Now, when this practice is discontinued, the VAT is refunded to exporters, thus the producers receive the real market price. Therefore, given this factor, since the beginning of the current year, the internal purchase prices of grain crops have increased from 11% to 26%, while the global spot prices since the beginning of 2016 have decreased on such goods: wheat – by 7%, corn – by 2%, according to global stock exchanges”, the Minister added.

For instance, the purchase prices of wheat of the 3rd class have increased by 12%, wheat of 4th class –11%, wheat of 6th class – 16%, rye – 22%, barley – 11%, and corn – 26%.