The European Business Association (EBA) has addressed Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal with a request to resume the work of the system of state registration of pesticides and agrochemicals, which was suspended in late May 2020, according to a statement posted on the association’s website on Tuesday.
According to the member companies of the EBA Agrochemical Committee, the problems have become relevant since the renaming of the Ministry of Energy and Environmental Protection of Ukraine and the establishment of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources.
“At the end of May, the Scientific Expert Council at the Ministry recommended 100 chemical products as a result of the meeting. However, as of today, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources has not yet made a decision on their registration. Therefore, the abovementioned chemical products are not included in the State Register of pesticides and agrochemicals approved for use in Ukraine,” the EBA said.
The association also noted that if chemicals are not included in the State Register, Ukrainian and international importers and manufacturers of plant protection products will not be able to provide farmers timely with a significant number of next-generation products.
“Due to this situation, legal businesses suffer losses as they fail to sell their products. As the result, the state budget lacks revenues from taxes and customs duties estimated at millions of hryvnias,” the association said.
In addition, the EBA noted that the use period of PPPs is quite short. Accordingly, the farmer will buy what is available on the market.
“Due to the lack of high-quality registered PPPs, there is a risk of a significant increase in demand for gray imports and counterfeit products. Thus, the quality and security of the future harvest, and, consequently, the export potential and currency stability of the country may be threatened,” it said.
Therefore, the business community appealed to the prime minister to pay attention to this situation and adjust the work of relevant departments, offices, and divisions of the Ministry of Environmental Protection so that to restore the system of state registration of pesticides and agrochemicals and, in general, to ensure quality conditions for doing business in the country, which is one of the tasks of the reorganized ministry.
The resolution approved by the Cabinet of Ministers on October 23 proposes the introduction of a unified state register of pesticides and agrochemicals in Ukraine, Viktor Pohorily, the coordinator of the agrochemical committee of the European Business Association, said on Facebook. “Among the main innovations is the creation of a transparent and understandable system of laboratory powers for ecotox and biological testing, the rejection of paper certificates, the introduction of a unified state register of pesticides and agrochemicals, which will be used by both customs and the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumers’ Rights Protection,” he wrote.
According to the coordinator of the agricultural committee, it is also envisaged to strengthen fight against unscrupulous applicants, improve the system of protection of intellectual property rights.
“Finally, the Ministry of Energy and Environment Protection will be able to cancel registration if one factory is declared during registration and products are taken from another place,” the expert noted.
In addition, according to him, the government “intends to introduce a new re-registration procedure, which will allow reducing to a few days some procedures that previously took a year, as well as introduce the concepts and criteria of “minor changes” and simplify the conclusion of an environmental expert assessment of materials.”
“The complexity and incomprehensibility of these processes over the past two years has constantly raised questions,” he said.
