On the eve of the spring sowing campaign in 2017 farmers and seed producers have become hostages of reorganization of the state system for registration and certification of seeds and planting material

Since termination of the State Agriculture Inspectorate of Ukraine in December 2016 functions related to certification of seeds and planting material have completely stopped. These powers were transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture pursuant to which the Ministry initiated the process of creating the state enterprise ‘State Center for Certification and Expertise of Agricultural Products’.  For the time being, the seed certification process has not been renewed yet, process of creating and empowering the SE and all its regional offices and laboratories has not been completed, procedure for certification has not been approved by the CMU and certification of the seeds produced in 2016 has not been completed. Approximately a third of the seeds necessary for this year's spring sowing campaign cannot be supplied to the agricultural producers.

At present, delay in certification of seeds threatens spring sowing campaign since according to the Law of Ukraine ‘On Seeds and Planting Material’ seeds cannot be put into circulation without certificate confirming varietal and sowing characteristics of the seeds as well as supplied to agricultural producers for planting. In case of absence of the certified seeds, farmers can purchase low-quality seeds or counterfeiting that directly affects yields, and on a national scale - success of agricultural and export potential, emphasized Oleksandr Zhemoyda, Executive Director of the Association ‘Ukrainian Agribusiness Club’.

The relevant associations have repeatedly applied to Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food as well as the CMU with a request to prevent suspension of certification, speed up the process of transferring powers, approve certification procedure, and proposed possible assistance and cooperation in solving the above-mentioned issues.

Today, the market is faced with the situation when certification and all related operations are actually not performed. In this regard, the relevant associations apply to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine with the following requirements:

1.    Ensure possibility of putting into circulation the seeds with international certificates, ОЕСР and ІSТА, and when carrying out field evaluation of such seed (if it is selected for sowing) take into consideration such certificates.

2. Approve Order of the CMU ‘On Approval of Procedure for Certification, Issuing and Cancelation of Certificates for Seed and/or Planting Material and Certificate Templates for Seed and/or Planting Material’.

3.    Identify the list of certification auditors (agriculturalist-inspectors) who are eligible for certification auditor license (agriculturalist-inspector) without passing a qualifying exam and their inclusion in the Register of Certification Auditors (agriculturalist-inspectors).

4.    Envisage that the number of labels assigned by the State Agricultural Inspectorate to generate the batches by manufacturers (phase of certification preceding sampling) are valid for issuing certificates to the generated batch.

5.    Authorize persons that applied to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food and comply with the legislation requirements to fulfill the corresponding functions on the certification of seeds.

An issue concerning seed certification requires urgent solution within 7-10 days, otherwise decrease of grain gross yield under harvest 2017 can be expected that will significantly reduce supply in the domestic market and export volumes.