Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has instructed the executive authorities to consider the possibility of introducing an export duty on buckwheat in line with the rules of the World Trade Organization.
Yanukovych signed an order concerning the stabilization of the situation on the food market, access to essential products and preventing ungrounded price hikes, the presidential press service said.
"The government, together with the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine and the local authorities, should check the reasons for a price hike in food products, in particular for buckwheat," the statement reads.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov was ordered by September 10 to provide the means for intervention from the stocks of the State Reserve Committee and the Agrarian Fund of Ukraine on the food market, first of all through the procurement of buckwheat.
"The government should ensure the infrastructure is ready to receive and store this year’s buckwheat harvest with minimal losses," the press service said.
The officials should also hold the talks on buckwheat imports with the countries that export this crop, to consider the introduction of subsidies for sowing buckwheat, and futures contracts for the purchase of buckwheat from agricultural producers by the Agrarian Fund.
In addition, the cabinet should make long-term forecasts on the production, consumption and export-import of farming products in order to avoid instability in the food markets.
