Specialists at the State Committee of Ukraine for Technical Regulation and Consumer Policy (Derzhspozhyvstandart) chose the products in the course of the entire year. They monitored the production technology and the products’ quality to eventually conclude: “These are the best goods made by Ukrainian producers.” The contest’s jury awarded 115 companies with the “Quality Excellence Distinction” certificates. Another 127 companies won prizes, and 102 more became the finalists of the contest. But certificates are not the main thing, contestants say — what is important is that the government is starting to pay attention to the recognition of Ukrainian brands. Nevertheless, this is not enough to secure leading positions on the market.
Serhiy Cherepkov, deputy director of Derzhspozhyvstandart, comments: “These events are aimed at drawing our society’s attention to the issues of quality. This all-Ukrainian contest makes it possible to identify the best Ukrainian producers and the goods of the highest quality. This enhances the competitiveness of Ukrainian goods on the domestic and international markets.” First deputy head of Derzhspozhyvstandart Serhiy Dorotych says that this year the number of candidates for nomination has increased considerably, which suggests that Ukrainian producers have a higher manufacturing potential.
At the same time, the government has to monitor the transparency of this process, which is not that easy because of the imperfections in current legislation. Dorotych says: “We are dealing with the consequences of inadequate political decisions made by executive bodies and political forces. In particular, there is a poor law on state supervision under which we have a right to come and check on a company only on a 10-day advance notice. It is obvious that if you inform an offender about a forthcoming inspectionin 10 days ahead of time, you can hardly find any evidence of a violation. This binds us hand and foot.”
The Day asked Dorotych: “Why hasn’t the regulation on marking the products that contain genetically modified components been implemented?” To this he replied: “There are certain business circles that are not interested in this because they use genetically modified additives. These are serious business structures and they are lobbying their business interests. We hoped that this decree would be passsed in September.” When asked to specify, Dorotych said that these are the producers of dairy and meat products, as well as beer and cheese producers.
MP Yurii Karmazin believes that the activities of Derzhspozhyvstandart are insufficient. He provides his own explanation for the fact that the necessary bills have not been passed: “Everyone has everything under protection. All areas are divided between different groups: MPs, Security Service of Ukraine, the Department for Combatting Organized Crime, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and other ministries.”
Each of the opinions presented above has a right to exist and be true, but the problem is not there: Why does the executive power, which is supposed to protect consumers’ and producers’ interests, regretfully describes the problem, but does nothing to solve it, although it is perfectly aware of all these nuances?
The Day asked the winners about what is needed to ensure such a high quality of their brands and what problems they are now experiencing.
Oleksandr AL-OMARI, director of “SAM Compania Ltd.” (quality excellence distinction for corn sticks):
“The most important thing is to use domestic resources, the best components, and remember the valuable experience of our past technologists. You can get the best product if you do so. What should the government do? The government shouldn’t interfere. It shouldn’t complicate things because today there are lots of difficulties with the organization, registration, and development of new products. As far as problems are concerned, ours is that it is that big supermarket chains are not paying for the delivered products in a timely fashion due to the current crisis.”
Oleksandr SAMOKHVALOV, director general of “Liustdorf” company (quality excellence distinction for cream with 30 percent milk fat):
“We are very careful with our brands because it is very easy to lose consumers’ trust and sales volumes. We all have to support, trust, and not harm Ukrainian producers so that they can have the leading positions. The government has to at least avoid hindering them. Dairy producers think that some TV channels have been discriminating Ukrainian products on purpose. They say that we do not have real milk or butter on our market. However, today quality excellence distinctions went to some of the contestants that produce precisely these products.”
