For many years, joint efforts were made to develop the Law of Ukraine “On Basic Principles and Requirements for Organic Production, Circulation and Labelling of Organic Products” and relevant bylaws, with the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumer Protection (SSUFSCP), organic sector organisations and international technical assistance projects playing an important role. And now, finally, the organic legislation in Ukraine has been fully implemented.
However, before starting to conduct state supervision in the organic sector, state inspectors of the SSUFSCP receive theoretical knowledge and gain practical experience in inspecting organic enterprises and their compliance with legal requirements. Thus, on 21-22 November and 5-6 December 2023, a ducational training of operators’ compliance with the requirements of the legislation in the field of organic production, circulation and labelling of organic products was held at Organic Milk and Galeks-Agro in Zhytomyr region, which was attended by 28 specialists of the SSUFSCP in total.
“This format of training is valuable for our inspectors, as the practical skills they acquire allow them to effectively perform the functions provided for by law”, said Anna Yermak, Head of the Organic Production Division of the Food and Feed Safety Directorate of the Food Safety and Veterinary Medicine Department of the SSUFSCP. Ms. Yermak also thanked the specialists of Organic Standard certification body for the professionally provided information, organic producers Organic Milk and Galeks-Agro, who kindly provided the opportunity to conduct the training at their enterprises, as well as the support of Switzerland within the Swiss-Ukrainian program “Higher Value Added Trade from the Organic and Dairy Sectors in Ukraine” (QFTP) for organising such an important training.
Leading Certification Specialists of Organic Standard certification body, Ivan Havran and Ruslan Bilyk, and Senior National Long-term Advisor of the Organic Component, QFTP, Yuriy Ohlashennyy, were the trainers at this event. During the two days of training, the participants conducted training checks of the documentation of two enterprises, practical assessment of the implementation of requirements for the production, circulation and labelling of organic products, discussed and completed the act drawn up as a result of a scheduled (unscheduled) state supervision (control) over the operators’ compliance with the requirements of the legislation in the field of organic production, circulation and labelling of organic products.
“The trainings involving both operators, representatives of the certification body and employees of the SSUFSCP are extremely useful for developing a unified approach to understanding organic production processes and compliance with legal requirements. It is also critical for forming an objective assessment of production processes. The exchange of experience among producers and certification bodies that have been working in organic production and certification in the organic sector for a long time, and state inspectors who are responsible for state supervision (control) over compliance with the requirements of the legislation in the field of organic production, circulation and labelling of organic products is also invaluable”, commented Yuriy Ohlashennyy, Senior National Long-term Advisor of the Organic Component, QFTP.
This pilot inspection was organised at the request of the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumer Protection and the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine in partnership with Organic Standard certification body with the support of Switzerland within the Swiss-Ukrainian Program “Higher Value Added Trade from the Organic and Dairy Sectors in Ukraine” (QFTP), implemented by the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL, Switzerland) in partnership with SAFOSO AG (Switzerland).
