Ukraine’s huge agriculture sector has long been constrained by outdated food safety regulations and practices that have limited the country’s export and investment potential.
But that should change soon, according to Volodymyr Lapa, the head of the new food safety and consumer protection state regulatory body.
Lapa told the Kyiv Post that new laws that came into force in January have finally brought Ukraine’s food safety and consumer rights legislation into line with that of the European Union.
The new legislation aims to improve standards of hygiene and food safety, as well as government supervisory procedures. Under the law, and to comply with the minimum requirements for exporting to the EU, all Ukrainian producers and retailers must conform to Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points standards.
But according to the International Finance Corporation, which advises businesses and the government on how to achieve HACCP standards, only several hundred out of thousands of Ukrainian companies currently comply with them. In 2010, the corporation calculated that 200 out of 20,000 or so manufactures had implemented HACCP standards, though figure does not include retailers.
Under the new laws, the Food Safety and Consumer Protection Agency that Lapa heads will replace the assortment of inspectorates that now exist. A total of 30,500 people are currently employed to regulate various aspects of food and consumer safety, while in future the number will be reduced to 10,000 people.
Lapa told the Kyiv Post that he will form his staff by the end of 2016.
A worker sets up a machine to milk cows at the AIS farm on Oct. 13, 2015. Recently 10 Ukrainian dairy companies were given approval to export to the European Union. (Volodymyr Petrov)
He hopes many of the new employees will be found through an open, competitive hiring process for the agency’s top positions.
The new body will make monitoring standards compliance more efficient and less expensive, according to Lapa. Duplication was rife under the old system. For instance, both the state veterinary body and the sanitary body oversaw the dairy industry because it involves animal products.
Meanwhile, only 10 Ukrainian companies are now certified as being in full compliance with the diary product importing regulations of the EU, but Lapa says he will soon recommend another three or four enterprises for inclusion by the European inspectorate.
“The most difficult stage is gaining permission for the country,” Lapa said. “After the adoption of legislation, the European Commission checks the controls and checks the enterprises. For dairy production that took about five years. For each type of production it is not an easy process, but if they accept the Ukrainian system of controls, then it comes down to the businesses to do the rest.”
Yuri Zvazhenko, who advises Ukrainian businesses at the International Finance Corporation, told the Kyiv Post that EU approval “is based on the general sanitary and veterinary situation in Ukraine. Companies still need to get certification to export.
According to Zvazhenko, HACCP standards are just the minimum requirements. In reality, they need other certificates, such as those issued for “organic” products, in order to be competitive.
Many companies don’t see a reason to become EU certified, Zvazhenko said, because they work inside Ukraine. “But the situation could change when the standards become mandatory. Implementation is low because companies need to improve their infrastructure… Most companies are former Soviet companies, and are still using the same premises and the same equipment. Renovation is difficult and expensive.”
Smaller companies have a two-year transition period, from 2017 until 2019, to comply with the new legislation, while larger companies must do so in 2017. Those who fail may face being shut down.
“If you look at the situation in the Baltic States and Poland, after the (EU-compliant) legislation came into force, a lot of companies closed,” Zvazhenko told the Kyiv Post.
Lapa said his agency will conduct training sessions in each region, together with the Agriculture Ministry, to explain the new principles of food safety to businesses.
As part of the March 29 Kyiv Post Capturing New Markets conference at the Hilton Kyiv Hotel, Ramunas Freigofas, a policy officer for sanitary and phytosanitary measures at the European Commission, will speak on food safety and related issues.
