Lobbying news
12.02.2014
Certification of grain quality costs for farmers extra $ 1 billion UAH
According to the International Finance Corporation, annual expences of agricultural producers on certification of grain quality and food processing accounted for 136 mln UAH in 2011/12 marketing year. Now, because of increasing exports of grain and technical crops, these costs can amount to 160 mln UAH.
The situation is complicated by abuse on the local level when the certification of grain quality implies the need for paying additional fees not stipulated by the law, and/or imposition of certain laboratories to check the quality of the grain. According the estimation of experts on grain market, these costs can vary from 20 to 40 UAH/t of grain. When the expected volume of grain and technical crops export is 35 mln t, we can talk about additional loss of agribusinesses in over 700 mln UAH. Thus, the total loss of the agroindustrial complex caused by the certification of grain quality will be about 1 bln UAH.
"We hope that the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine will cancel the mandatory certification of grain quality already at the nearest session, moreover, that the State Inspection of Agriculture expressed willingness to abandon this instrument in favour of the more efficient use of the system declaring the availability of grain," says Volodymyr Lapa, Director General of the Association "Ukrainian Agribusiness Club” (UCAB). According to him, the draft resolution prepared by the State Service of Ukraine for Regulatory Policy and Entrepreneurship Development, and can be considered at the nearest session of the Cabinet of Ministers.
UCAB emphasizes that eliminating unreasonable losses of farmers is extremely important under the difficult financial situation where majority of agricultural enterprises occured.
Association “Ukrainian Agribusiness Club”
3 floor, 146 Zhylianska Str.
01032 Kyiv, Ukraine
Phone/Fax: +380 44 2362097/79