At the moment, the adoption of the necessary by-law acts for implementation of the Law of Ukraine «On the Main Principles and Requirements to Organic Production, Circulation and Labelling of Organic Products» is almost over.
Last week, the Order of the Ministry for Development of Economy, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine from 31.12.2020 № 2833 “Requirements for Material and Technical Resources and other infrastructure, needed for implementation of certification of organic production and/or circulation of organic products” was registered in the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine from 20.01.2021 р. № 81/35703. According to experts from the SAPFI project, Yulia Movchan and Olena Kyivets, this document will finally allow launching the mechanism of private certification of organic production in Ukraine.
At the moment, the law contains 6 requirements for certification bodies, among them there is a requirement for material and technical resources and other infrastructure, needed for implementation of certification of organic production and/or circulation of organic products. And that’s the requirement that is related to one of the key obligations — an accreditation in the sphere of organic production and/or circulation of organic products for one or more fields of organic production. It’s related to the fact that the accreditation itself requires sufficient material and technical resources.
The Order sets reasonable requirements for the work of certification bodies:
- proper premises
- at least one workplace equipped with a personal computer and
- official website
And the website is the main of these requirements because it’s related to obligations set in Procedure for Certification of Organic Production and/or Circulation of Organic Products and Amendments to the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine from 23.10.2019 № 970.
It will be recalled that the procedure adopted by the resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine from 21.10.2020 № 1032 implies that certification bodies have to make the information about operators, with whom they signed a contract, publicly available on their website.
Such information should include all information that is present in the National register of operators that produce products in compliance with legal requirements, and also all information stated in the certificate.
Therefore, in practice, certification bodies can publish electronic copies of certificates on their websites.
And the website of a certification body is where consumers will be able to quickly check all the information about a producer of organic products.
Thus, at the moment, for the final implementation of regulations of Law of Ukraine «On the Main Principles and Requirements to Organic Production, Circulation and Labelling of Organic Products» only one more document has to be adopted — Draft Order of the Ministry for Development of Economy, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine «Some issues of reporting in the field of organic production, circulation and labeling of organic products».
You can get acquainted with the full list of regulations in the field of organic production, circulation and labeling of organic products at the link.