From Russia Again: Ukrainian farmers refuse to sow buckwheat

Ukrainian agrarians refuse to sow buckwheat. They don’t believe it to be profitable, writes Agro-Center.

In 2018, Ukraine sowed three times less buckwheat than usual. It is explained by the fact that Ukrainians do not want to buy domestic buckwheat, because the price for it is rather high. Since the price for our buckwheat is higher, Ukrainians choose to buy low-quality but cheaper Russian buckwheat.

Russian buckwheat gets to Ukrainian shops from Kazakhstan. Ukraine is not going to ban imports of this buckwheat as was stated by the First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food, Maxim Martynyuk.

“There are processes of extensive agriculture in Russia. In the Altai Krai, they introduce new areas and the first culture that they sow is buckwheat. It is cheap there in terms of price. And in the north of Kazakhstan, on the border with the Russian Federation, a large plant was built. It takes this cheap buckwheat and produces cereals from it “,

said Martynyuk.

The Ministry of Agrarian Policy will not impose an embargo on this product as the price for buckwheat on the Ukrainian market may go up in the near future.