A scheme has been uncovered in Ukraine that allows soybeans to be exported under the guise of soybean meal, avoiding taxes. According to investigative journalist Yevhen Plinsky, the fraud was made possible by changes introduced by the Ukrainian government.
The essence of the scheme is that the raw material is exported outside the country not as a grain crop (which entails a 14% export tax), but as a processed product - soybean meal. Since the meal is not officially subject to customs duties, it can be exported without tax restrictions and even without documents on the origin of the product.
The key role in this loophole, according to Plinski, was played by the government — it was they who excluded meal from the list of goods subject to the export guarantee regime. As a result, the volume of “meal” exports increased rapidly. However, the scheme became publicly known only after Romanian customs officers detained 32 wagons of soybeans declared as meal in March 2025.
According to the journalist, one of the key links in the scheme is the company Platinum Logistics LLC, which after the scandal began on April 1 urgently changed its name to UDK LLC. The founders of these structures are Igor Kyzyma and Vyacheslav Zhukov, who are involved in many companies involved in shadow export operations.
Schematically, the fraud looks like this:
— Intermediaries buy soybeans from farmers for cash and at dumping prices;
— The grain is transported to Chernivtsi and transferred to the “scheme operators”, also for cash;
— The company “Platinum Logistics” organizes transshipment into wagons and hires a carrier;
— At the same time, fictitious documents are formed through one-day companies, in particular “Lapter Group”, which state that the cargo is not grain, but meal.
Customs, according to the journalist, does not pose any obstacles - the cars are headed to processing plants in the EU. There they are unloaded, and payment for the "Ukrainian meal" is made in foreign currency through offshore jurisdictions - without tax control from Ukraine.
It is worth noting that such schemes not only lead to direct budget losses, but also create unequal conditions for legal exports and reduce the country's reputation in foreign markets.
