The Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine will facilitate organic producers to strengthen its position in the European markets
Over the last few years, Ukraine has become a reliable supplier of organic products to the EU because of its quality and competitiveness. The development of organic production and expansion of niche positions, especially processed products in European markets — this is one of the priorities for Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine in the framework of the developed strategy «3+5».
This was said by Deputy Minister on European Integration Trofimtseva Olga during a conference «Sourcing Organic from Ukraine in 2016». The event was held in late October in Frankfurt (Germany).
«Today, nearly 300 farmers engaged in the production of organic products, the volume of which exceeds domestic consumption. Around 400 ths ha of land in Ukraine is certified for organic agriculture. More than 80% of total exports of the product go to the E. U. Ukrainian organic products have great demand from foreign consumers. But today the Ukrainian exporters and European distributors are facing a number of challenges in their work», — said Olga Trofimtseva in her opening remarks at the conference.
The Deputy Minister said that the Ministry of Agrarian Policy will work to ensure that regulatory barriers for import of Ukrainian organic products to the EU will be reduced. «Today is an ongoing debate regarding the necessity of double inspection of organic products from Ukraine and another 9 countries when exporting to the E. U. The first inspection of products is conducted before crossing the border by our national supervisory authorities, and then inspection must be conducted in the country of destination. These „voluntary directives“ introduced by the European Commission, add unnecessary work and expenses not only for domestic exporters, but also to foreign buyers. Importers lose time and money through additional analyzes, and this affects on the competitiveness of our products», — summed up Olga Trofimtseva.
The Deputy Minister noted that the main «homework» of the Ministry will be to create a full register of organic producers in Ukraine, which will have a clear and transparent picture of the organic sector. Team of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and food of Ukraine is working actively on this issue.
Olga Trofimtseva also said that European colleagues are preparing to launch a new e-certification system for imports. «The European Commission has proposed to create a new e-system of certification for imported organic products. This will help trace products during transportation for the transparency of trade and reduce the risks of fraud. The Ministry of Agrarian Policy and food of Ukraine strongly supports this proposal because it will provide an opportunity to increase the level of confidence of foreign customers for quality of Ukrainian organic products, and significantly reduce level of expenses for our supervisory authorities», — said Olga Trofimtseva and added that the decision of the European Commission to move to an electronic system certification will enter into force within 6 months and its launching is planned in April 2017.
During the conference, Deputy Minister urged the European importers to be not only traders but also to invest in the infrastructure and logistics for the export of organic products from Ukraine. It was also agreed to have a permanent dialogue with the European Commission and national regulators of the EU members on organic sector in order to exchange information, prevent emergencies in bilateral trade and for better policy coordination in this field.
For information
Conference «Sourcing Organic from Ukraine in 2016» was held in Frankfurt (Germany) with the support of FiBL (Research Institute of Organic Agriculture, Switzerland), FiBL Projekte GmbH, AFC Consultants International — a German consulting private company. The goal of the conference — exchange information and solve key issues regarding the expansion of reliable trade of Ukrainian organic products.