The government wants to remove barriers to the Ukrainian organic in the EU
Over the past few years, Ukraine has become a reliable supplier of organic products to the EU due to its quality and competitiveness.
This is related by the Deputy Minister for European Integration Olga Trofimtseva during the conference “Supply of organic matter from the Ukraine 2016”, which was held in late October in Germany.
“Nearly 300 farmers engaged in the production of organic products, which exceed domestic consumption. About 400 thousand. Hectares of land in Ukraine is certified for organic farming. More than 80% of the total exports of the product goes to the EU. Ukrainian organic products have a great demand from foreign consumers. But today the Ukrainian exporters and European retailers are facing a number of challenges in their work “, – said Olga Trofimtseva.
“Today is an ongoing debate on the desirability of the existence of double-checking for organic products from Ukraine and a further 9 countries when exporting to the EU. The first test of the product takes place before crossing the border by our national supervisory authorities, and then check must be carried out in the country of destination. These “voluntary guidelines” imposed by the European Commission, added unnecessary work and costs not only to domestic exporters and foreign buyers. Importers save time and money for additional analyzes, which affect the competitiveness of our products “, – explained Olga Trofimtseva.
The main “homework” of the Ministry is to create a full registry of organic producers in Ukraine, which will provide a clear and transparent picture of the organic sector. According to Olga Trofimtsevoy, Ministry of Agrarian Policy team is actively pursuing this direction.
Also Olga Trofimtseva told that now European colleagues are preparing to launch a new electronic system of certification for the import of products.
“The European Commission has proposed the creation of a new electronic system of certification for imported organic products. This will help to track products during transport to the transparency of trade and reduce the risk of fraud. Ministry of Agrarian Policy has actively supported this proposal because it will provide an opportunity to raise the level of confidence of foreign consumers for the quality of Ukrainian organic products, as well as significantly reduce the level of costs for our regulatory authorities “, – said the deputy minister, and added that the decision of the European Commission on the transition to the electronic certification system will come in force for 6 months and is planned to start in April 2017.
