Restrictions on farmland rent could entail closure of 40 sugar plants, says Ukrtsukor

Kyiv, January 25 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The restriction on the maximum area of farmland rentals in one district foreseen in the draft law on the land market could entail the closure of more than 40 sugar refineries and a sugar shortage in the country, Chairman of the Ukrtsukor National Association of Sugar Producers of Ukraine Mykola Yarchuk has said.

"If the article that limits the renting of land comes into force in such a form, two-thirds of our sugar plants could stop work. We will have to buy sugar from other countries at a high price and of unknown quality," he said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine in Kyiv on Wednesday.

At the same time, Yarchuk noted that restrictions on farmland rent prevent sugar factories from creating a resource base within a range of 50 kilometers.

According to him, in particular, for a company with a processing capacity of 5,000 tonnes of sugar beet per day to have enough raw materials, it needs have about 60,000-68,000 hectares of land, taking into account crop rotation.

He said that the association had appealed to the president, the Verkhovna Rada chairman, as well as the Agrarian Policy and Food Ministry and the profile parliamentary committee with a request to consider in the final wording of the draft law on the land market the specifics of farms' work and foresee differing forms of land relations for various agricultural businesses.

As reported, the Verkhovna Rada on December 9, 2011 adopted a draft law on the land market at first reading.