Nongovernmental agricultural organizations (NGOs) have said that imports of seeds to the country had been suspended and have asked Ukrainian Premier Mykola Azarov to intervene to correct the situation.
An address to the premier was presented at a press conference in Kyiv on Wednesday by the Ukrainian Agribusiness Club, Ukrainian Agrarian Confederation and Seeds Association of Ukraine.
Ukrainian Agribusiness Club Director General Volodymyr Lapa said at the conference that over the past several months seeds were not imported to Ukraine, as the State Service for Protection of Rights of Plant Varieties has not issued certificates on the availability of certain plant varieties and hybrids in the state register of plant varieties to importers.
Experts said that a delay in imports of seeds to the country puts the sowing campaign at risk. According to the assessments of the Seeds Association of Ukraine, farmers sow imported seeds on some 35 percent of sunflower fields, around 40 percent of cornfields, 50 oercent of rape, cabbage and onion fields and 60 percent of sugar beet fields.
Lapa said that the absence of high-quality seeds could lead to a reduction in yields by 15-20 percent in 2011. In addition, he does not rule out that Ukraine would harvest only 40 million tonnes of grain this year due to problems with seeds instead of the expected 45-47 million tonnes.
Deputy Director General of the Ukrainian Agrarian Confederation, Oleksandr Yaroslavsky, said that the restriction of seed imports would lead to a rise in the price of seeds in the country, which would affect the production cost of the future harvest.
The experts did not rule out that the delay in the issue of the said certificates to seed importers was linked to the realization of the administrative reform.
As reported, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has reorganized the State Committee for Veterinary Medicine, the State Veterinary and Phytosanitary Service and subordinated them to the Agriculture and Food Ministry under a decree on the optimization of the system of central executive agencies.
The Ukrainian Agribusiness Club said that in 2010 Ukraine imported 29,400 tonnes of corn seeds, 1,940 tones of rapeseeds, 1,700 tonnes of onion seeds and 890 tonnes of sugar beet seeds.
