Roundtable on organic production in Ukraine

The roundtable “Marketing and Trade of Organic Products” was held on 19 July 2019, two weeks before the Law of Ukraine No 2496-VIII “On the basic principles and requirements for organic production, circulation and labeling of organic products” taking effect.

This event was organized by the “German-Ukrainian Cooperation in the Field of Organic Agriculture” project, funded by BMEL and implemented by AFC and IAK, together with the  “EU Support to Agricultural and Food Policy Implementation in Ukraine” as well as the Information Centre “Green Dossier” and biologic.tv with the support of the Ministry of Agrarian policy and Food of Ukraine.

60 representatives of the largest retail chains and small stores which offer organic food products, law-makers, organic producers, and industry associations had the opportunity to become acquainted with the legislative requirements in organic production. Moreover, participants discussed the organic legislation – criticism, concern, worries, and issues which should be taken into consideration during adoption of by-laws, as the work on their elaboration is in progress. The Law and its by-laws have to regulate the organic market, safeguard consumers from buying pseudo organic products and, first of all, protect responsible organic producers.

Thus, starting from August 2, the Law prohibits to use the inscription “organic”, “biodynamic”, “ecological” and/or any single-rooted words and/or derivatives from these words with prefixes bio-, eco-, in particular, in the names of trade marks, graphic presentation, product name or any other information for consumers without the certificate which confirms organic origin of such products. For the first time ever, the Law introduces administrative liability for labeling the products in breach of the law in the field of organic production, circulation and labeling of organic products and for selling organic products without proper confirmation.

Therefore, compliance with the law is becoming a common responsibility of producers and retailers. During the roundtable, Guidelines on Organic Food and Feed Labelling were presented. They contain legislative requirements to organic food and feed labelling with account of general requirements to food labelling; requirements to imported food labelling as well as guidelines on the state organic logo use.

After their further revision based on the round table results, these Guidelines will be published at the website of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine in the section “Organic production”.

For further information please contact Stefanie Maak (Stefanie.Maak [at] afci.de).

Sources: Organicinfo.ua and Minagro.gov.ua