July 16 2002, 14:13 APK-Inform

Ukraine: Agrarian and Finance Ministries arranged procedure to compensate mortgage grain purchases

Minister of Agrarian Policy Serhiy Ryzhouk told journalists Monday that MinAP together with the Ministry of Finance had arranged a procedure of using budget funds to compensate banks the expenses of mortgage grain purchases.

He said that banks would be granted 100% compensation of credit rates, destined for mortgage purchases, provided that the rate did not exceed the NBU's discount more than 3 times. According to Ryzhouk, the Minisry hoped that in this year the mortgage purchases would play a role of credit to farmers.

He said that as of the current date, 860,000 tonnes of grain had already been purchased, which was 6 times more than at the same date last year, even considering that this time the purchasing price was by 10-15% more than last year's. As a whole, in this year government and commercial grain procuring organizations, authorized by state to make mortgage purchases, would purchase 3 million tonnes of grain, noted Mr. Ryzhouk.