Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman has expressed hope that the management of Rivneazot and Cherkasy Azot, part of Ostchem Group, will resume operations at the plants in autumn 2017.

"I instructed the first deputy premier, we've checked provision with fertilizers for the spring sowing campaign, but we need to prepare for autumn. And I hope that management of the plants will resume the work of these enterprises," Groysman said at a press conference on the results of the year of the government's activity in Kyiv.

According to him, he is interested in the work of Ukrainian producers of fertilizers, but all of them are private enterprises.

"There is the demand for nitrogen fertilizers, and this is a mysterious question for me why these enterprises do not work. The plants can directly buy gas all over the world to produce mineral fertilizers," the prime minister added.

As reported, on December 27, 2016 the Interdepartmental Commission for International Trade decided from February 2017 to introduce anti-dumping duties on Russian mineral fertilizers, but later the imposition of protective duties was postponed until July 2017.