OREANDA-NEWS. On May 15, 2008 the Ukrainian Agricultural Policy Ministry has called for canceling or increasing export quotas on sunflower seeds oil by 200,000 tons (up to 700,000 tons).

Agriculture Minister Yuriy Melnyk plans to meet with Economy Minister Bohdan Danylyshyn to discuss the issue, according to the Ekonomicheskiye Izvestiya newspaper.

The Cabinet of Ministers put quotas on the export of sunflower oil and sunflower seeds from March 22 to July 1, 2008, totaling 300,000 tons of oil and 1,000 of seeds. Export companies have already started receiving licenses. Quotas were distributed between 40 companies.

On April 23, the Ukrainian government increased export quotas on sunflower oil by 200,000 tons to 500,000 tons. On April 16, a commission on distributing quotas decided to distribute quotas totaling 300,000 tons between export companies.

In April, Ukrainian enterprises exported only 13,580 tons of sunflower oil, which is 14 times less compared to the same period in 2007.