Against the backdrop of limited opportunities for exporting Ukrainian agricultural products, proposals are emerging to give priority in logistics to oilseed crops and the products of their processing. The Ukrainian Agri Council considers such an approach unacceptable: under conditions where agricultural producers' warehouses are overflowing with grain, this would further complicate its sale and increase the pressure on purchase prices. And if priority in exports is to be introduced, it should extend to all agricultural crops and be granted first and foremost to farmers from frontline territories.

This was stated by the Deputy Chairman of the Ukrainian Agri Council, Denys Marchuk:

"Lobbyists are initiating proposals to grant a priority right to export oilseed crops and the products of their processing, in particular oilcake and meal. This is nonsense. Oilseed crops already have an advantage in export even without additional preferences, since their higher value makes it easier to cover significant logistics costs. For grain crops, the share of logistics in the final cost of the product is much greater. Therefore, creating additional preferences for oilseed crops under the current conditions is unacceptable."

The consequences of such a decision would be felt first and foremost by farmers themselves. Due to limited exports, their warehouses would remain filled with grain, the opportunities to sell products would shrink, and purchase prices would continue to decline. This would hit producers from frontline territories especially hard.

"As a result, we would get a situation where farmers' warehouses remain overflowing and producers have no opportunity to sell the accumulated grain, while large processing companies export what they have processed. If certain export preferences are to be introduced at all, then first and foremost we need to think about farmers from the frontline regions. Their warehouses are also overflowing, and due to difficult logistics, producers cannot get a fair price for their products. Therefore, if we want to grant someone a priority right to export, it should be precisely the farmers of the frontline territories = and it should apply to all agricultural crops, not to individual types of products," the Deputy Chairman of the UAC emphasized.