Foreign Enterprise ‘SGS Ukraine’, leader at the market of expertise, verification, control and certification in agriculture sector, joined the Association ‘Ukrainian Agribusiness Club’. How the company is carrying out its business at present was told in an interview by Oleksandr Vozniuk (pictured left), General Director of SGS Ukraine.

-   What services in the agricultural sector does the company provides to customers?

It is difficult to imagine that there is something that SGS doesn’t deal with in the area of inspection. We offer an extremely broad spectrum of services from personnel training and teaching to analysis, audit and certification of food safety. For the time being we have representative offices in the main cities of Ukraine as well as a high-technology laboratories and qualified auditors. Within agricultural sector, the company provides support and expertise to the client throughout the whole supply chain and all stages of the production process in order to avoid many problems and contribute to facilitating international trade for agricultural producers.

-   Are you in position to certify enterprises by yourself?

Yes, we certify enterprises and assist them in obtaining international certificates. While carrying out certification we engage experts from Ukraine registered in the international registers, and, therefore, the reports prepared by them are recognized by our foreign subsidiaries that will issue the certificate. We understand that for many Ukrainian companies it is a challenge, but we do believe that our country will be an exporter not only of the raw materials, but also of processed products with added value.

-   Do you perform market research and sell it?

Every year we develop a quality performance chart for our clients. During harvesting we visit households, elevators, take samples and perform testing in laboratories, so that our customers at the stage of harvesting understand where they face with or can face with the potential problem.

-    Why are you interested in cooperation with UCAB?

Our company is pleased to work with active and successful business representatives. Agriculture is a driver of the Ukrainian economy, the best representatives of the market are included in UCAB, so we want to cooperate with the Association. Since SGS is a leader among inspection companies we should be in this circle as well, as we have a great deal to say and offer to customers.

For reference. Swiss group ‘SGS’ (SGS Societe Generale de Surveillance S.A.) was established in 1878 and has representative offices in more than 140 countries worldwide. It is the largest international independent inspection company, world’s leader and innovator in inspection, verification, testing and certification. Today SGS Group is recognized as the global benchmark for quality and integrity. With more than 85,000 employees, they operate a network of more than 1,8000 offices and laboratories around the world with headquarter in Geneva, Switzerland.

The range of services provided by the company includes inspection, research, verification, control and certification of quality as well as inspection of industrial and technological processes, services related to certification of commodities, products, processes, services, etc., establishment / operation of laboratories with equipment, devices and methods, provision of information following the results of laboratory analysis of products, certification of test results conducted by other laboratories and test centers.