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Biotech / Medical : Monsanto Co. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Anthony Wong who wrote (2155)	6/9/1999 3:11:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Respond to of 2539

INTERVIEW-U.S. Monsanto says cuts Ukraine business Wednesday June 9, 2:47 pm Eastern Time By Pavel Polityuk CHUBYNSKE, Ukraine, June 9 (Reuters) - U.S. agricultural group Monsanto (NYSE:MTC - news), frustrated by Ukraine's slow reforms and debts by local consumers, said on Wednesday it would reduce its presence in the country. ''We are winding up some kinds of our businesses activity here,'' Vladimir Vasiliev, Monsanto's coordinator of projects and business development in Ukraine, told Reuters. The company, based in St Louis, Missouri, has been working in the ex-Soviet state since 1988, covering 15-20 percent of the domestic needs in herbicides. But Vasiliev said the debts of local consumers worth ''tens of millions of dollars'' were the main obstacle to developing the company's business in the country of 50 million people. Vasiliev, who declined to give concrete figures, said Monsanto had cut its sales in Ukraine by some 30 percent so far this year. ''We have no plans to increase supplies until new landlords replace Soviet-era farm managers,'' he said. The company is frustrated by the absence of private land ownership in a system where agriculture is still dominated by low-productivity cash-short Soviet-era collective farms. The country's fertile land cannot be used as collateral for bank loans. Vasiliev said Monsanto's future activity in Ukraine would depend on the outcome of the presidential election set for October 31 this year. Analysts say that President Leonid Kuchma, regarded as a moderate reformer, is likely to face a strong challenge from a leftist candidate. Monsanto is not the only Western company whose agricultural business has been affected by slow reforms in Ukraine. A government official told journalists last week that several Western producers of chemicals had plans to stop or reduce their business activity in Ukraine due to debts by local farms worth a total of $215 million for last year alone. Ukraine does not produce enough chemicals of its own for crop protection.