Photo from UNIAN
Ukrainian Agrarian Policy and Food Minister Oleksiy Pavlenko announces Ukraine is ready to boost exports of grain and sunflower oil to Turkey by two-three times to ensure that country's food security threatened by Russia's trade restrictions.
"We can easily increase our exports of maize, wheat, sunflower oil and other commodity groups by two or three times," he told reporters after a government meeting on Wednesday.
The minister informed the parties had already agreed to intensify cooperation in agricultural supplies.
"We've met with the Turkish Ambassador and agreed on cooperation and the development of business contacts," Pavlenko said.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk stated Ukraine was ready to help Turkey replace the Russian food supplies with Ukrainian goods, in particular cereals and vegetable oils.
According to the Ukrainian Economic Ministry, Turkey is the third largest export market for Ukraine, accounting for about 6.3% of Ukraine's total exports.
On November 30, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Russia had imposed sanctions against Turkey "in order to protect Russia's national security and interests." In particular, Russia bans or restricts foreign economic operations involving import into the Russian Federation of certain types of Turkish goods. The list of such goods is determined by the Russian government.
In this regard, the Ukrainian Agrarian Ministry initiated talks between Turkey's diplomatic representatives and Ukrainian farmers to arrange shipments of Ukrainian food onto the Turkish market.
Earlier, experts noted that the deterioration of relations between Turkey and Russia could lead to a unilateral ban by Russia on food supplies from Turkey.
Ukrainian Ministry Pavlenko said Ukraine was ready to ensure agricultural products shipments to Turkey.