News
21.05.2013
Food enterprises need at least 5 years to reach EU standards, State Veterinary Service
Ukrainian food industry enterprises need at least five years to bring their products up to EU standards, Deputy Head of State Veterinary and Phytosanitary Service of Ukraine Vitaliy Bashynsky said.
"According to the experts, we need at least five years for us to evade a direct threat. This direct menace is when we introduce European standards. Some enterprises cant reach that level - they will have to shut, or change the specialty, and the vacuum that will be created on the market will be filled by imports," he said during a conference entitled "Ukraine-EU on the Way to the Joint Future" in Kyiv on Thursday.
According to Bashynsky, EU standards in Ukraine are not yet ratified and the enterprises work according to the Ukrainian law.
"Today the Agricultural Policy and Food Ministry together with the Justice Ministry, the coordination center of the administration of Ukrainian president, and the Foreign Ministry have elaborated and now are coordinating at the interested ministries six laws that will completely change the national system of control and supervision over the production and circulation of all food products," a representative of the veterinary service reported.
He noted that these bills have been drawn up on the demands of the EU that Ukrainian law be adapted to match European standards.
Moreover, Bashynsky reported that in general up to 10% of Ukrainian food enterprises meet EU standards, they are ready to compete with European producers after the creation of a free trade area with EU.
"We have over 17,000 food market operators, of which about 2,000 match EU standards," he said.
Bashynsky said he was also sure that the creation of a free trade area with EU will definitely bring losses to the Ukrainian enterprises. However, other countries run this way, and are already members of the EU.
