Due to dumping of Russia.

Ukrainian farmers are unhappy - Russia has flooded almost half of the store shelves in Ukraine with low-quality groats. According to the estimates of the chairman of the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Council, Andrey Dikun, now Russian buckwheat in the Ukrainian market occupies 45-50%.

He says that from year to year, the import of buckwheat into Ukraine is growing rapidly. Back in 2016, Ukraine ordered only 9,200 tons of cereal from abroad, in 2017 already 12,000 tons, and since the beginning of 2018, about 20 thousand tons have already been imported.

Andriy Dikun says that, taking into account shadow supplies, Russia is importing at least 50,000 tons into Ukraine. Slightly more than this figure, Ukrainian plants produced cereals in 2018 - 55,000 tons.

Due to the growth of imports, Ukrainian farmers sow less and less land with buckwheat. Over the past year, they have decreased by almost half. If in 2017, buckwheat occupied 184 thousand hectares, then this is already 100. Agrarians say that it is unprofitable to grow a culture - buckwheat has become cheaper than wheat.

“Previously, the purchase price of buckwheat was 12 hryvnias / kilogram (43 cents), now it’s six to eight (20-28 cents). It is unprofitable for manufacturers. The state must do this, otherwise the farmers will sow soybeans instead of buckwheat, ”says Nikolai Malienko, director of the Pobeda buckwheat seed cultivation plant in the Kiev region.

Farmers also warn that the reduction of buckwheat fields will negatively affect beekeeping.