Over 200 participants joined the online training “State supervision (control) of FBOs compliance with the law on organic production, circulation and labelling of organic products” on 6 September 2023. The experts of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, SSUFSCP, QFTP, and Organic Standard participated in the training.

In her welcome speech Liudmyla Khomichak, Deputy Director of the Department - Head of the Food Security and Excise Products Division of the Department of State Policy in the Field of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, emphasized the importance of this online training, as the image of Ukraine as a reputable supplier of organic products will depend on professional control in the organic sector. The trained specialists will also be able to take part in the joint interdepartmental work to improve the regulatory framework according to the EU legislation, namely, in the area of supervision (control).

Anna Yermak, Head of the Organic Production Division of the Food and Feed Safety Directorate of the Department of Food Safety and Veterinary Medicine, SSUFSCP, highlighted in her welcome speech that effectiveness of state control by the competent authority is the key not only to guaranteeing safety and quality of products, but also to improving and increasing the demand for organic products among consumers.

Natalie Prokopchuk, Organic Component Coordinator, Swiss-Ukrainian Program “Higher Value Added Trade from the Organic and Dairy Sector in Ukraine” (QFTP), noted that in the next three years QFTP will assist the Ministry and SSUFSCP in adaptation of the Ukrainian organic legislation to the relevant EU regulation and its further implementation. An important aspect of this work is improvement of approaches to state supervision (control), therefore, the training is primarily aimed at improving the mentioned control system.

During the online training Ms. Yermak also spoke in detail about the SSUFSCP’s powers during the scheduled and unscheduled control, i.e. inspections of control bodies and random inspections of operators.

Yuriy Ohlashennyy, Senior National Long-term Advisor, Organic Component, QFTP, briefed the participants on the organic regulatory acts of Ukraine. Special attention was paid to the following:

• the procedure of defining the frequency of scheduled state control of the operators’ (facilities’) compliance with the legislation on organic production, circulation and labelling of organic products and criteria for risk assessment of operators’ activities;
• the check list of the act on the results of scheduled (unscheduled) state control of the operators’ (facilities’) compliance with the legislation on organic production, circulation and labelling of organic products.
• Vasyl Shukalovych, Senior Certification Expert of certification body Organic Standard, introduced the certification system and spoke in detail about practical aspects of conducting inspections / audits of organic operators.

The event was organized at the request of the SSUFSCP and Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine in partnership with certification body Organic Standard with support of Switzerland within the framework of the Swiss-Ukrainian Program “Higher Value Added Trade from the Organic and Dairy Sector in Ukraine” implemented by the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL, Switzerland) in partnership with SAFOSO AG (Switzerland).