Operations of PJSC Agrarian Fund as of morning on February 8, 2019 has been blocked due to raids conducted by detectives of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) started in the office of the state-owned company on February 7 at 14:00.

According to the report of the Agrarian Fund, these actions of law enforcement agencies are groundless, and the work of the enterprise will be restored in the near future. Accordingly, there is no doubt that the Agrarian Fund will be able to finance the sowing campaign of 2019 in the planned amount.

"Today's raids in the head office have no basis. Only last year, the Agrarian Fund increased its net profit by 55%, to UAH 147 million. The Finance Ministry should soon decide on sending it in the form of dividends to the national budget of Ukraine. Let me remind you that in 2015, when our team led the Agrarian Fund, its income was UAH 2.9 billion, and today it is almost three times higher – UAH 6.9 billion," Board Chairman of the Agrarian Fund Andriy Radchenko said.

According to him, today's actions of anti-corruption agencies are causing concern, as they threaten not only the work of the state-owned company and the level of dividend income to pay to the state, but also the entire program of support for small and medium-sized farmers in Ukraine.

"Therefore, I have to address today directly to the president, prime minister, profile minister, deputies of the Verkhovna Rada, in particular, the agrarian committee, to promptly intervene the situation that is unfolding today around the Agrarian Fund and take it under personal control," Radchenko said.

NABU detectives February 7 and February 8 raided PJSC Agrarian Fund. According to the NABU, this investigative action is authorized and took place as part of a pretrial investigation in criminal proceedings regarding the fact that Agrarian Fund officials have embezzled more than UAH 240 million during purchasing, storing and packaging fertilizers in 2017-2018.