Producers urge Ukrainian government to launch feed registration system the soonest
The feed market in Ukraine is blocked and in the near future Ukraine may face a shortage of feed because of the lack of a solution that would recognize the equivalence of registration system of the EU's feed additives.
According to a press release from the European Business Association (EBA) on Thursday, April 9, more than 11 million livestock will be denied possibilities to get modern, high-quality diets.
"That is especially relevant, because a high percentage of livestock requires the daily use of specialized veterinary feeds (for example, animals with certain diseases), which are not yet available in the assortment of domestic producers. Therefore, the only solution for such animals is imported feed," the association said.
According to the European Business Association, until recently, Ukraine had a system for registering finished feeds (each formulation of a finished product that was imported or manufactured in Ukraine was registered). However, the law on feed safety and hygiene adopted in 2017 introduced a new system for registering feed additives, non-finished feeds.
"Therefore, now finished feed can be produced or imported into Ukraine only using additives registered in the register of feed additives (which has not yet been created). On the one hand, this brought Ukrainian legislation closer to EU standards, but, on the other, caused certain difficulties," the association said.
"Today we have a situation that there is no equivalence of the European system for registering feed additives to the Ukrainian system. This leads to a halt in the supply of imported feed from the EU and the loss of substantial revenues to the public budget. At the same time, for some livestock this is fraught with chronic diseases or even fatal the outcome, "the press release said, citing coordinator of the committees of the European Business Association Tetiana Shyrochenko.
In addition, the problem lies in the fact that leading manufacturers of finished feeds are constantly working on improving formulations, introducing new, more advanced products to the market. However, none of them can now reach the Ukrainian consumer, since there is no registration mechanism, the association said.
"If the issue is not resolved, there may be a situation where the import of finished feed into Ukraine will be completely stopped. Since the old formulations will be taken out of production, and new ones, widely available to consumers in Europe will not be able to be imported into Ukraine. For the budget of Ukraine, this will mean the lack of multimillion amounts of taxes that are currently being paid, for example, by such world leaders in feed production as Mars, Nestle, Royal Canin, etc.," the association said.
In this regard, the European Business Association appeals to the Prime Minister of Ukraine and the EU Delegation in Ukraine with a request to assist in solving this situation.
Source: Interfax-Ukraine.
