Netherlands largest importer of organic products Ukraine
The organic market in Ukraine is constantly developing. Thanks to country’s size (603.6 thousand km2, including 42.7 million hectares of agricultural land, according to the State Statistics Service of Ukraine), geographical location, proximity to potential international buyers, and widespread fertile black soils, Ukraine has favourable conditions for organic agriculture. Read more in the factsheet ' Organic in Ukraine'.
Organic export Ukraine
In the last few years, Ukraine has become an important supplier of organic products for Western markets. The main organic export products from Ukraine are cereals, oil crops, pulses, wild collected berries, mushrooms, nuts, and herbs.
In 2017, there was the first export of Ukrainian organic honey, and in 2018 its exported volumes mounted to 300 tons. In addition, the volume of exported frozen raspberries has increased significantly in the recent 3 years and reached more than 400 tons in 2018. Recently there appeared the first Ukrainian producer of the organic sugar (Deddens Agro LLC), who became shortly a major player on the European market for organic sugar with the volumes of more than 800 tons. In total Ukraine shipped more than 70 different organic trade items in 2018.
Processed products
More and more Ukrainian operators are intending to sell not only raw materials but also organic semi-processed and processed products abroad. For example, the export of organic sunflower oil increased significantly in 2018. In 2017 organic export from Ukraine reached 264 thousand tons (according to the operational monitoring data collected from certification bodies by the Reform Support Team at the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine). Organic export value was about 90 million US dollars (estimated data from the survey conducted by the Organic Standard certification body). The organic exporters from Ukraine benefit from the Association Agreement signed in June 2014 between the EU and Ukraine, as well as from the Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement that came into force on 1 August 2017. Precisely, from 2017 Canada has been revealing as an attractive trading direction for Ukrainian operators, who have already certificated their production according to the regulations of Canada Organic Regime. Moreover, since January 2016, the EU and Ukraine have been applying the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area DCFTA), which forms part of the Association Agreement. These agreements have greatly reduced trade barriers for Ukrainian exporters. However, Ukrainian exporters suffer from the EU guidelines on additional official controls on products from Ukraine, which have been applied since June 2015 and are prolonged by the EU Commission in 2019.
According to the Organic Standard data, as of 2016-2018, the most importing countries (by volume) of Ukrainian organic products of operators certified by all certification bodies were the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, the UK, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, Czech, France, Hungary, Romania, Belgium, Bulgaria, and Denmark. Ukrainian producers also export to the U.S., Canada, Australia, and some Asian countries.
Read the full organic in Ukraine factsheet here: http://organicinfo.ua/shared/formedia/18/2/Factsheet_Organic%20in%20Ukraine_for%20Biofach2019_EN_final.pdf