Prices of fertilizers in Ukraine are 26-74% higher than global prices due to artificially created restrictions, Economic Development and Trade Minister of Ukraine Aivaras Abromavicius wrote on his "Twitter" page.

"Farmers finance monopolists," he wrote.

The minister attached a photo of a comparative price table to his tweet, in which domestic prices of ammonia are $556 per tonne (VAT not included), FOB Black Sea prices are $375 (VAT not included), urea - $2771 and $341, ammonia nitrate - $328 and $188, urea-ammonia mixture - $278 and $178, and ammophos - $586 and $465

Abromavicius said that the Economic Development and Trade Ministry, jointly with the Agricultural Policy and Food Ministry and a group of lawmakers, is drawing up a plan to increase competition by facilitating registration procedures on the fertilizers market.

As reported, Agricultural Policy and Food Minister of Ukraine Oleksiy Pavlenko has assessed the shortage of mineral fertilizers for the autumn sowing campaign at 300,000 tonnes. He said that the problem could be resolved by launching new enterprises or lifting duties on fertilizer imports.

Two of the four enterprises of Ostchem Group – Horlivka Stirol Concern and Severodonetsk Azot are located in the Anti-Terrorist Operation zone and had production halted due to security concerns. Two more ammonia nitrate producers from the Group – Azot (Cherkasy) and Rivneazot, have been idle since April 2015 due to the absence of raw materials.