On February 21, 2018, the second Seeds Forum was held within the framework of the VIII International Grain Tech Expo. The event was organized by the Association «Ukrainian Agribusiness Club» jointly with the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, Ukrainian Seed Partnership Association and the Seed Association of Ukraine.

The event was devoted to actual trends of the seed market, recent changes in the industry and the identification of potential ways of seed production development in Ukraine. The forum brought together representatives of government bodies, industry associations and seed producers.

Volodymyr Topchiy, Director of the Department of Agrarian Policy and Agriculture of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, described the state and prospects of the seed industry development: «Over the past 5 years, the number of market participants has fallen by half. 547 subjects of seed production were represented on the market in 2017. This is due to the low cost of production. Today, the Ministry faces many challenges, in particular, we expect the European Commission's decision about recognition of the certification sphere in accordance with European standards. In the field of seed trade, we need to implement about 40 measures before the association with the EU and adapt 14 regulatory legal acts. Then we will be able to move to EU markets and other markets and expand our seeds exports. In 2017, we exported 1270 tons of seeds, while imports reached more than 35 thous. tons. We have to orient ourselves to the leader of exports - Hungary, which exports 300 thous. tons».

Alexander Kapustinskyi, acting Director of the State Enterprise «State Center of Agricultural Products Certification and Examination» told about a newly established enterprise, which announced itself in March last year: «Today, there are 24 branch offices in all regions of the country, we have 70 laboratories, 331 people are employed in the state enterprise. In 2017, we issued nearly 30 thous. certificates, and over the current year, we have already issued over 3 thous. The start of institution's work was not easy, as the staff were being recruited in parallel, the policy was being formed, and so on.  We are currently cooperating with associations and producers. Many of them are concerned about the formation of prices. We plan to reduce the price for re-certification of seeds by 25-30%».

One of the industry problems is counterfeit seeds. In an effort to protect its customers from unscrupulous forgers, the company is constantly working to improve its security tools and from time to time update its hologram. Natalia Litostanska, Chamber Seeds Committee Co-Chair, Project Lead, LLC Pioneer Hi-Bred Ukraine spoke about the problem of counterfeiting and collecting royalty from seeds and seedlings: «The issue of counterfeiting is a global problem that has a negative impact on all industries and segments in the modern business world. The results of official controls throughout Europe indicate an increase in the risk for agricultural producers in the purchase of counterfeit seeds. At Pioneer, we use different methods for determining the original seed, for example, the ability to scan independently the QR-bar code on hologram using smartphone or thermal sealing system, which makes it impossible to reuse and helps to maintain the integrity of their contents during storage and transport».

The use of counterfeit seeds leads not only to significant financial damage to agricultural producer, but it can also harm the environment and the health of the final consumer.