Ukrainian MP (the Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defense faction) Volodymyr Aryev states that the State Food and Grain Corporation of Ukraine, when asked about the price of buckwheat imported from China, voiced a figure of $1,750 per tonne, while experts say that the maximum price is $700 per tonne, according to the Dzerkalo Tyzhnia Ukraine newspaper.
"The price of one tonne of buckwheat is $1,750 under CIF terms (Odesa), i.e. the price in Odesa is UAH 14,000 per tonne. At the same time, professionals operating on the grain market noted that it is expensive, even too expensive for such buckwheat that is produced in China and taking into account CIF [insurance and transportation]," said Aryev.
According to him, the experts say that the maximum price of buckwheat supplied from China is $700. "That means that the price of $1,750 is absolutely inadequate and significantly overstated. It is not clear what the additional $1,000 was used for. It is not clear why buckwheat was bought in China if it turned out more expensive than that in Ukraine," said the MP.
According to him, the State Food and Grain Corporation notes that after the transportation of the first batch of Chinese buckwheat to regions its retail price will include "the minimum fixed trading extra charges taking into account customs clearance and delivery costs", while previously the parliament cancelled buckwheat import duty setting it at 0%. "That means that the corporation wants to justify the unreasonably high price of buckwheat. The government said that buckwheat would be sold to the public at UAH 19 per kilogram but not UAH 14 as it had been announced earlier," Aryev said.
