KYIV - New rules to prevent Ukranian agricultural exports below official minimum prices will start in August at the earliest, a senior agriculture ministry official said late on Wednesday.

The new export price mechanism will apply to shipments of wheat, corn, sunflower oil, soybeans, rapeseed and some other agricultural commodities.

Disruption due to the war with Russia has led to cash domestic purchases of some of Ukraine's agricultural products and exports at artificially low prices to avoid taxes.

Ukraine's government has drawn up calculations to set minimum export prices for some agricultural commodities to increase revenue.

In line with the new rules, minimum permissible export prices will be calculated on the basis of the state customs service data, taking into account the terms of delivery for the previous month and using a 10% discount.

"I don't expect it to happen before August," deputy farm minister Mykhailo Sokolov told an online meeting with analysts and traders.

The Ukrainian parliament in May passed amendments to a law introducing the new rules and Sokolov said the law would come into forces on July 1.

Sokolov said that a number of government documents still need to be adopted to launch the minimum price mechanism, but did not give an exact date when the new procedure will start.

  - Reuters