Farmers are ready to go on strike in response to Ukrzaliznytsya’s new tariffs

Ukrainian farmers are ready to go on strike because of new increased tariffs of “Ukrzaliznytsya” (“UZ”). The agrarian committee is preparing an appeal to the Cabinet of Ministers, the head of the government and the President about the termination of the decision of the management of “UZ”, writes “Agro-Center”.

“Farmers are serious about this, there might be a strike. The problem is that “Ukrzaliznytsya” increased tariffs for transportation of agricultural products by almost 50%. It destroys our producers,”

said People’s Deputy Grigory Zabolotny.

People’s deputies plan to send a group to a session of the Verkhovna Rada, talk about producers’ problem, sign the decision, apply to the Anti-Monopoly Committee and begin the investigation of the activities of the “Ukrazaliznytsya”.

Elena Kovaleva, Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food, said that increased tariffs are not the only problem. “UZ” cannot provide farmers with quality wagons and stations. Elena noted that the logistic component of transportation cannot cost farmers more than 20% of the production cost.

The main request of the committee members will be the justification of tariffs within the framework of the legislation, and the Anti-Monopoly Committee will be asked to check the increased tariffs.

“It is necessary to hold a meeting in the Cabinet of Ministers with the participation of the Prime Minister, the leadership of the MEDT, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine and “Ukrzaliznytsya”. We have to solve the issue this week. Tomorrow the decision must be read in the Cabinet of Ministers,”

said Alexander Bakumenko.

The reason why farmers reacted in such a way is that “Ukrzaliznytsya” decided to increase tariffs for the use of grain hoppers by 48%. According to the new tariffs, services of a grain hopper will cost farmers UAH 1,266 per day (with VAT).

“Let’s recall that it is the fourth increase in the cost of transportation of grain cargos over the last year. Thanks to this, prices for grain transportation have increased almost twofold during the last year,”

says Valery Tkachev, Deputy Head of Logistics at “Delta Vilmar”.