The Verkhovna Rada finally adopted the law on “Production and circulation of organic goods and raw materials.” A total of 302 MPs supported legalization of the Ukrainian organic products with the necessary minimum of 226 votes.
After two years of procrastination MPs managed to compromise on the organic question with the help of the president’s amendments – earlier he recommitted the draft. According to the experts, interviewed by The Day, this step will significantly reinforce the positions of Ukrainian producers on the European market and will increase the domestic market of organic products.
We remind our readers that back on September 18, 2012 the Verkhovna Rada adopted the law setting the requirements for growing, producing, processing, certification, marking, transportation, storage, and selling of organic goods and raw materials. According to the law, producers can be certified by local offices of the State Agricultural Inspection and private authorized certification bodies.
However, the president, vetoed that law in October and recommended to review some provisions of law, non compliant with constituent acts in certification, conformity assessment, and state monitoring of business activities. In particular, the president mentioned that assignment of the same powers for inspection and certification to the government agencies and private authorized bodies provided by the law and the absence of clear division of their monitoring functions contradicts the Constitution and might lead to unjustified competition between the abovementioned entities. According to the president, combining the functions of certification and state monitoring in one institution contradicts Ukrainian and international principles of certification and monitoring.
Yanukovych also pointed out the flaws in marking. Thus, according to him, the law permitted marking products as organic even if they have non-organic ingredients. The guarantor also disliked additional subsidies for producers of organic goods, subsidies for concession of land and water use, and complete reimbursement of expenses for insuring agrarian risks, etc.
MP from the opposition BYuT, former minister for agrarian policy and one of the co-authors of the law Ivan Kyrylenko remarked that the president’s propositions diluted the law, however it is still a step ahead for the organic agriculture development in Ukraine.
Is it true that the document got worse after the amendments? What consequences will the adopted bill have for the further development of the market of organic products? The Day asked the experts.
“PEOPLE WILL HAVE MORE TRUST IN LABELS ‘ORGANIC’”
Volodymyr LAPA, CEO of the association “Ukrainian club of agrarian business”:
“This law will bring certain order since the organic direction is not under regulation and we can often see labels using the words ‘organic,’ ‘eco’ or ‘bio.’ However, they often are just elements of design as it is impossible to prove it right or wrong without mechanisms of organic goods production. The adopted law completely regulates all processes of production and certification of organic goods. It also defines the powers of government bodies.
“The president’s amendments do not bring anything significantly new to the draft. There are positive and negative aspects in them. The positive thing is that after the law is implemented people will have more trust in labels ‘organic.’ The reason is that the production of such goods has certain technical regulations, there are monitoring mechanisms for such goods and defined zones of production. The risk is that the experience of the EU in certification is not completely taken into consideration: if a producer gets an organic certificate in order to export the goods to the EU, they are supposed to automatically get a Ukrainian certificate. However, the draft does not provide this. Another risk is a small transition period of 3 months. There is every possibility that all normative acts and procedures will be timely implemented. If the necessary procedures are not adopted in time, the Ukrainian producers who really make organic goods will not be able to use the term ‘organic.’
“164 FARMS RECEIVED EUROPEAN ORGANIC CERTIFICATES”
Yevhen MYLOVANOV, chairman of the board of the “Federation of Organic Movement of Ukraine”:
“The adoption of the law coincides with the beginning of the organic week in Ukraine that will take place on September 5 through 12. The adoption of this law is another attempt to legalize the work of the organic sector of Ukraine as there is not any law so far. There have been two laws adopted in Ukraine, this one is the third. However, the president has not signed it yet. The organic sector started developing in 1997. In general, absence of regulations of this market from the parliament or president of Ukraine does not impede its development that much. In 2011 the domestic market of organic goods made more than 5 million euros and in 2012 it made 8 million. Grains and legumes are produced the most. In Ukraine 164 farms received European organic certificates at the end of 2012. By the end of 2013 their number will have exceeded 170. Most producers are oriented to the European market as it is much larger than Ukrainian. So, today organic production is an export-oriented one. Organic production in Ukraine uses more than 272,000 hectares or 0.3 percent of all farmlands. Their number will grow: with the assistance of the state in 5 to 10 years the percent of the organic farmland might grow up to 3 percent of all farmlands. Why is it important to adopt this law? In the EU countries most producers are subsidized by the governments of different countries or the EU in general. For example, neighboring Moldova subsidizes its organic farmers. Legalization of organic certified producers is one of the steps towards financial support for them. Today, the annual growth of organic production in Ukraine makes 50 to 100 percent. The growth rate will depend a lot on the adoption of the decision concerning subsidies for domestic producers. It is also important that the finalized document, signed by the president corresponds to its European analogue. In my opinion, the main condition for bringing the Ukrainian norms closer to the European ones is the transparent production and clear work of certification bodies. As a result, end-users have to be satisfied as much as possible being able to monitor the origin of this product, its further processing and transportation. Consumers need safe products.”
