OREANDA-NEWS. August 24, 2015. Export of agricultural products of Ukrainian origin to China has upped seven times, while it dropped to 2% in the total exports of agricultural products to Russia, said Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk during his meeting with journalists following his communication with Ukrainian leading grain traders in Pereyaslav-Khmelnytsky.

"We have cardinally changed the situation in foreign markets. We have reduced the dependence of Ukraine on the markets of Russia and the CIS. Regarding the market of Russia, there have remained 2% in the total exports of agricultural products. The rest is other markets, third markets," he said.

He set as an example the statistic data demonstrating an increase of exports to the People's Republic of China - sevenfold: "We are entering other markets, we are opening the markets of third countries. The same, we hope that our Free Trade Agreement with the European Union would give additional impetus to the Ukrainian agrarian sector".

Speaking about further reduction in the share of exports to the Russian market, Arseniy Yatsenyuk noted: "Throughout last ten years (Russia – ed.) they have always done and are still doing everything they can to close access for Ukrainian exports to their markets. They thought that we wouldn’t manage to find other markets. We have succeeded. Nonetheless, systemic violation by the Russian Federation of the Free Trade Agreement actually forced the Ukrainian agricultural sector to turn more competitive, more efficient, to open new markets and get these new markets".

"Russia has ceased to be determinant for Ukraine's agricultural sector", accentuated the Head of Government.

Moreover, Arseniy Yatsenyuk focused on connection between dropping oil prices and Ukrainian agricultural products. He views as positive that crude oil is falling much faster than, for instance, agrarian products lose their value in Chicago stock exchange: "Now the price dynamics is as follows. Ukrainian agricultural sector remains profitable. And I predict no negative trends by the end of year. Another plus - crude oil dropped. If oil drops, it entails reduction in price of fertilizer and price of fuel, which affects significantly the prime cost of agricultural products. So, it should be the concern of the neighbouring state the situation with oil prices. Our agrarian sector is all right."