A substantial slowdown of export sales of rape seeds is currently observed in Ukraine. This was stated by Sergey Melnik, Deputy Minister of Ukraine for Agrarian Policy in his address during the “Day of Field-2008”, organized in Kharkov region on August 29.

"Of 2.8 million tons of rape, harvested in Ukraine in 2008, over 2 million tons are currently in the warehouses", - the Deputy Minister said.

According to S. Melnik, the main reason for this is that nowadays the most European countries reprocess domestic oil seeds and do not show any interest in purchasing this product from Ukraine.

In view of this circumstance and since harvesting of corn and sunflower has begun, Ukraine may within the shortest term encounter a problem of warehouse space deficit for storage of grain, - the Deputy Minister added.

However, in general the rate of export of agricultural plants from Ukraine is currently quite high – the country’s monthly volume of grain supplies to the external markets makes up about 1.5-2 million tons, - S. Melnik says.

"In this connection the Ministry does not see any need for administrative regulation of export”, - S. Melnik emphasized.