The Verkhovna Rada has been advised long ago to adopt a law regulating purchasing prices for milk. This is stated in the answer given by the head of the Parliament Andriy Parubiy in response to the inquiry of the MP from UKROP Iryna Konstankevych.
In particular, the text of the document states that the Verkhovna Rada’s Committee on Agrarian Policy and Land Relations at the meeting on January 26, 2016 considered the draft law ““On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on State Regulation of Procurement Prices for Milk and Village Support” (Reg. No. 2089) and recommended the Parliament to adopt it in the second reading as a whole. The required list of documents was submitted to the Verkhovna Rada for consideration.
However, according to the MP from UKROP Iryna Konstankevych, the companies which have monopoly position in the dairy market do everything possible to prevent the bill from being considered. Meanwhile, villagers suffer from low prices for their products. In particular, the residents of all four districts of the 23rd constituency, where Iryna Konstankevych was elected, raise this issue almost at every meeting with the MP.
“Our domestic dairy market is not formed by many factories. But they are monopolists, so they set their own rules of the game, which, of course, take into account only their interests. At the same time, according to official statistics, villagers in Volyn region have got 95 thousand cows, so imagine how many families depend on monopolists that control prices on the market. By making arrangements with each another, companies artificially underestimate the price, and people who have no choice are forced to agree with it. This situation can be regulated by legislative means only. However, quite evidently it is unprofitable for the monopolists, and they are trying to delay the adoption of the “milk law” by all means,” says Iryna Konstankevych.
