"The situation that has arisen with sugar is the result of the government's careless, unpredictable behavior. I do not agree with the statements of Minister of Agrarian Policy Baranivskyi that quota imports of raw sugar into the territory of Ukraine could not have been allowed," Ihor Yeremeyev, head of the People's Party faction in the Verkhovna Rada, told Volyn journalists on July 16.
"Statements that we will protect our own producer, in this case, are 'pure' populism," believes Ihor Yeremeyev. "The draft law envisaged that 300 thousand tons of raw sugar could be imported, while its cost price would be at the level of 3.4 thousand hryvnias per ton. And the cost price of Ukrainian sugar in the autumn period is 2.8-3 thousand per ton. And it will never destroy the domestic market, but it also will not allow the price on the market to rise to 5 thousand," believes the People's Party MP.
"And most importantly – we will not develop smuggling. Is it a secret that today in Kharkiv or in Luhansk we buy Russian smuggled sugar? Or is it a secret that we transport it from Poland by buses? Let's look at things realistically...," added the people's deputy.
Ihor Yeremeyev considers the sharp rise in the price of sugar a direct consequence of the failure to adopt the law on quota imports of raw sugar. "The law was not adopted, raw sugar was not imported in the necessary quantity to keep the price down. And we have the result – 5 thousand hryvnias per ton of sugar," he explained.
The deputy head of the People's Party also believes that government officials should have approached this problem analytically and distinguished between the concepts. "Can quota volumes of raw sugar be imported into Ukraine for processing? Unambiguously yes. Can it be imported without restrictions? Categorically no. Everything must have a mathematical approach...," noted Mr. Yeremeyev.
"I believe that such a policy is wrong, and in this situation Minister Baranivskyi was engaging in populism. It was necessary to find out at the exchange what the cost price of raw sugar is, make calculations and say, for example: 'Don't agree with such a policy? Let's introduce a duty of not 60 but 100 euros. Then the price will be 3.8 thousand, but not 5 thousand! Because as a result of this populism, the ordinary person suffers...'," noted Ihor Yeremeyev.