Fruitful cooperation between public authorities and business associations, which were representing the interests of Ukrainian producers of agricultural products, made it possible to obtain a successful and balanced agreement on a Free Trade Area with the European Union. It has been said by members of AgriDebate on "The FTA with the EU: chances and opportunities for agriculture of Ukraine", which was organized by the Association "Ukrainian Agribusiness Club" (UCAB) on the 24^th of October in Kiev.

"As active participants in negotiation process, we represented directly Ukrainian producers of agricultural products, and we are more than satisfied with the result, as it was well known EU position on certain issues and we did not expect such a result. A compromise was especially notable in the final rounds of negotiations, "- said, opening AgriDebate, the President of UCAB Alex Lissitsa.

According to the Government Attorney for the European integration Valerii Pyatnytskyi, this result has been achieved with the help of clear definition of wishes and requirements of agricultural producers."From the first day we began to address the real business: manufacturers of tomato paste, confectionery, representatives of oilseeds, meat and wine industries ... they clearly argued their positions. As a result, we received 15 instead of 10 years of transition for the abolition of export duties, possibility to apply a bilateral safeguard mechanism, high enough quotas for duty-free imports into the EU on many kinds of products, which sometimes even exceed our short-term export potential ... Today we are working on elaboration of technical details of the agreements'- added Valerii Pyatnytskyi.

The results of negotiations on FTA were also evaluated as "a sign of perspectives, rather than restrictions on certain items" by Taras Kachka, Director of International Economic Relations, Ministry of Agriculture and Food of Ukraine.

Sarah Ockman, Project Manager of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) “Food safety in Ukraine”, said that signing this agreement will be a very good opportunity for Ukraine and Ukrainian companies, which already have well-organized quality management system of food safety HACCP (hazard analysis and critical control points) and will be able to export their products to the EU.

 Present producers of tomato paste agreed with her words. "Today Ukraine occupies 12th place in the world of tomatoes production, and our products quality is not inferior to Spanish or other European counterparts. Accordingly, permission to export tomato paste to the EU under an FTA is a very important step for the development of fruit and vegetable industry of Ukraine ", - said Oleksii Sypko, Director of Marketing and Sales of agricultural holding" Agrofusion" (leader in the industrial production of tomato paste in Ukraine under the trademark "Inagro", Mykolaiv region).

It will be recalled that talks on a Free Trade Area between Ukraine and the EU officially ended on the 20^th of October in Brussels.