UNIAN
Three co-owners of large agricultural holdings have complained that the worsened situation on the world market is aggravated by corrupt schemes put in place during the rule of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, and there has been little progress in remedying the situation since Yanukovych’s ouster.
The complaints were made an interview conducted by Ukrainian magazine Novoe Vremya with Kharkiv businessman Vsevolod Kozhemiako, whose company Agrotrade is one of the largest agricultural producers and grain traders of the country, Oleksiy Gavrylov, the owner of the Ramburs group of companies, which is engaged in poultry breeding and trading grain, and Alex Lissitsa, CEO of Industrial Milk Company and the president of the Ukrainian Agribusiness Club (ASTP).
"When Yanukovych came to power, the agricultural industry was controlled by Yura Yenakiyevsky [Yuriy Ivaniushchenko, a former MP from the Party of Regions, put on the wanted list by the Interior Ministry in January 2015] and the Minister of Agrarian Policy Mykola Prysiazhniuk,” Kozhemiako said.
“They simply blocked ships and did not allow the handling of cargo. They used to say: ‘Pay up, if you want the ship to leave.’ This approach was applied to our companies and foreign ones. Without exceptions."
According to Kozhemiako, the whole process was organized and supported by customs officers, agricultural inspection and quarantine service officers. At the same time, most agricultural market participants say that the change of power has not brought about any improvement, and many officials that “went underground” in February-March last year have resumed their positions and continue their corrupt practices.
"The old schemes have started working in favour of new beneficiaries," Gavrylov complains.
"We have applied to Ihor Shwaika (Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food after the change of government in 2014). We met with Shwaika. The minister had all the leverages to break down these schemes, because the main performers were his subordinates. We do not know how [the bribes] are being distributed now, but we are still forced to pay," Kozhemiako said.