Forget banana republics, the new standard for laughable government, run by self serving wanna be presidents for life, is Ukraine. To ensure the new standard sinks below the banana bar, Ukraine has chosen buckwheat as its measure of government absurdity.

Ukraine’s government decided to be the first in the world which has turned a national food into a policy crisis. The problem is buckwheat. Actually the problem is the lack of buckwheat, maybe.

According to half of the government the problem is that speculators hoard buckwheat. Because they monopolized supply prices are reaching historical highs for this beloved Ukrainian food. According to the other half of government the problem is that government did not assure timely import of the product into Ukraine.

The first half replies to the second half saying we will import buckwheat from the world’s exporting powerhouse China. The second half replies to the first half wait! Chinese buckwheat doesn’t meet our standards, so we won’t import it.

The conversation above has occurred over the past three weeks. However the conversation wasn’t a dialogue in government but a monologue between the left and right half of the Prime Minister’s brain, Mr. Azarov.

The constant flip flopping by the second in command of the country is funny, but the situation becomes ridiculous when the same subject has brought forth comments from the Chairman of the National Bank Board of Governors, the Minister of Agriculture, the first Vice Prime Minister and the President from the government side, all of parliament and the press.

At the same time Ukraine has slipped further down another Index – The Economic Freedom Index. Ukraine’s economic freedom score is 45.8, making its economy the 164th freest in the 2011 Index (out of 183 countries). Ukraine's score is 0.6 point lower than last year, primarily because of declines in government spending and freedom from corruption. Ukraine is ranked last out of 43 countries in the Europe region, and its overall score is lower than the world average. [Counties that scored less than 49.9 are considered as repressed economies by the Index.]

These indexes are not very accurate, but they do provide an overall rough idea of where a country stands in relation to others. Further they show trends. The trend for Ukraine is pointing to new lows.

The buckwheat problem will be easily solved by fall because farmers will think that this is a profitable crop and predictions are that sowings will increase to cover three times more area. Of course that will lead to a dramatic fall in prices if there is no drought or just a moderate fall in prices if a drought occurs.

Whether importing Chinese buckwheat will solve the current shortage or not is fairly academic as the main consumers of the food, the 40% of Ukrainians below the poverty line will not be able to afford it even if it reaches them.

In the meantime we will be subject to further schizophrenic discussions regarding buckwheat. Unfortunately the same crew wants to have total control of everything else and not just Buckwheat.

UkrAgroConsult