Horns and hooves under the walls of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine: stock breeders protested against the opaque distribution of state subsidies

The protest action gathered about a thousand livestock keepers from all corners of our country. Despite the cold and frost, representatives of agricultural enterprises came to Kiev to express their dissatisfaction with the work of the Ministry of Agrarian Industry and Food of Ukraine, which behind the producers' backs "quietly" adopted a plan to distribute 4 billion UAH of state support, guided by their non-transparent interests.

With the slogans "Let's not destroy livestock!", "Down with officials from the trough," "Money – for stock breeders, jail – for officials!" producers walked along Hrushevskyi Street to the government building.

The chairman of the Ukrainian Stock Breeders Association Iryna Palamar addressed the participants of the protest, thanking all those present for their support and activity.

"Today we have gathered to defend our rights to fair grants for livestock keepers. We feed Ukraine, take care of workplaces, pay taxes to the budget. And we will force officials from high offices to respect us!” says Iryna Palamar. 

The chairman of the USBA noted that at the end of 2016 the state, having canceled the return of the VAT to stock breeders, actually took from them about 10 billion UAH. The quasi-accumulation regime, which was proposed in 2017, was also ineffective, since not all producers were able to get this money. And in 2018 they took the money according to these articles, but gave 4 billion to support livestock.

"In the past year, our Association was pestering the thresholds of power cabinets for a year," says Iryna Palamar. "We asked for support, and Prime Minister Volodymyr Hroisman heard us, allocating 4 billion. However, the Ministry of Agribusiness wants to let this money through its pocket schemes!"

Iryna Palamar noted that only for the maintenance of its apparatus the Ministry of Agrarian Policy spent last year 2 billion 607 million UAH.

Instead, livestock is destroyed. Only in the past year, 10% of cows, 8% of pigs were cut.

"When the Ministry of Agrarian Policy proposed budgetary grants for their pocket schemes, we immediately reacted. We assembled the All-Ukrainian agrarian meeting, where they proposed transparent mechanisms for distributing state support funds, and submitted an open letter of the Prime Minister signed by all producers. And we are supported by many authorities representatives: they are First Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Economic Development and Trade Stepan Kubiv, and Ministry of Economic Development. We are not supported only by the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, which leads cheap populism. "

Iryna Palamar drew attention to the fact that the loans that the Ministry of Agrarian Policy offered to take to farmers are not given without collateral. And for the pig-breeding business, then in general, no one is lending for the high risk of ASF.
The participants of the action joined the speech of the chairman of the Association: producers and workers of agricultural enterprises, who also noted that the lack of support for livestock production is hitting not only the development of the industry, but also the welfare of Ukraine, as jobs and revenues to the state budget are lost. "If this goes on, then in a few years the livestock industry will decline several times, and from it "horns and hoofs” will remain, " explain the rally participants.

As an eloquent testimony of what could happen to livestock, the horns and hoofs of animals were brought to the government building, and a milk cistern was poured directly onto the road.

In conclusion, the chairman of the USBA, Iryna Palamar, presented the representative of the secretariat of the Cabinet with an appeal to the Government to amend the adopted Procedure for the use of boxes in animal husbandry, which were developed by the producers together with the Ukrainian Stock Breeders Association, namely:

- Pork subsidies - 2 UAH/kg and subsidies for the cows keeping 2 thousand UAH/head;

- Compensation of interest on working capital of activities of existing enterprises for industrial pig breeding and cattle breeding;

- Simplification of obtaining permission and approval for design documentation for the construction and reconstruction of livestock farms and complexes, enumerating the findings of technical and economic expertise;

- Affordable loans for stock breeders. Strict government demand for banks to lend to producers of pork and cattle producers without collateral; promulgation of a memorandum on general principles of cooperation with the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and with banks that will lend livestock keepers;

- Partial reimbursement of construction and reconstruction of livestock complex enterprises; mechanisms of state support, without the participation of commissions. Functions of commissions are acceptance of documents and approval of lists;

- Payment of partial reimbursement of the cost of construction and reconstruction of livestock farms and complexes quarterly and an open register of recipients of state support;

- Reduction of VAT on food products from 20 to 7%.

It bears reminding that the protest rally was held on the results of the All-Ukrainian Agrarian meeting, organized by the USBA, which took place on February 22, at which producers of livestock products accepted their proposals for changes to the Decision on the distribution of budgetary subsidies and sent them to the Government.

In case the Government does not listen to the agrarians, they promise more radical forms of protest.