Companies@UA: База компаний Украины

Kyiv, August 6 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Economy Minister Bohdan Danylyshyn says that the growth in the price of sugar recently seen on the market is due to price collusion among sugar refineries.

"I think there is price collusion among sugar refineries on the sugar market in order to pursue their economic interests with the assistance of the pricing policy," he said in an interview with the Den newspaper published on Thursday.

The economy ministry came to such a conclusion after analyzing the situation on the market, he added.

"It would seem that there is a lot of sugar in the country, and there are no grounds for price hikes on the market. However, over the past three months prices have been on the rise," he said.

He said that taking into consideration the bad situation in the sugar industry, the Economy Ministry intends to facilitate sugar production next year, for instance, through reducing the costs of loans issued to sugar refineries.

As reported earlier, Ukraine has been seeing an increase in retail prices of sugar recently. Many experts consider it groundless as domestic sugar stocks are sufficient to meet four months of demand.

The ministry estimates Ukraine's sugar ending stocks as of September 1, 2009, at about 600,000 – 700,000 tonnes.

Ukraine's sugar market capacity is estimated at about 1.8-2 million tonnes per year.