Grain and Oilseeds

As a result of EBA’s lobbying efforts, certificates of quality of grain and its processing products were removed from the list of permits the issuance of which have been carried out at permit centers. This improvement has been stipulated by the Law of Ukraine Amending Certain Laws of Ukraine Regarding Optimisation of Permits Issuance in the Field of Economic Activity No. 4782-VI that went into force on 23 June 2012.

Background: At the beginning of this year new procedure for certification of transportation of agricultural products has been introduced. Aimed at facilitation of permits issuance, in practice it had created an additional stage in licensing system, which, on the contrary, had complicated economic activity of enterprises. In accordance with the Law of Ukraine on the List of Permits in the Field of Economic Activity No. 3392-VI of 19 May 2011, which entered into force on 1 January 2012, permits should include certificates of quality of grain and its processing products among others. According to provisions of Article 7 of the Law of Ukraine on Licensing of Economic Activity No. 2806-IV, the issuance (re-issuance, issuance of duplicates, cancellation) of permits executed by regional and local licensing authorities should be carried out by state administrator at the licensing center under the organizational unity principle.

It should be noted that the procedure for permits issuance under the organizational unity principle involves many steps and requires a great deal of time, thus complicating the timely receipt of permits and effecting business activity. In particular, obtaining certificates of quality of grain and its processing products require preliminary examination of each vehicle by a state inspector, as well as multistage registration and processing of necessary documents, from submitting application to a state administrator to actual issuance of permits. In addition, these permits are issued for each individual vehicle and are valid for one shipment only. It should also be noted that period of time required for obtaining permits could exceed the validity period of the documents themselves. Thus, the procedure for obtaining permits provided by current legislation has significant drawbacks and adversely affects business operations, as supply of agricultural products requires a large number of permits and the delays in issuing of these documents lead to business losses due to inability to execute contracts, losses of transportation and logistics industry, which at the same time, reduce tax revenues to the state budget.

Therefore, EBA Grain & Oilseed Committee has been strongly advocating the reconsideration of the procedure for permits issuance in general, as well as the introduction of amendments to current legislation intended to simplify the process of issuance of permits for transportation of agricultural products. A number of meetings held with government officials and appeals to the state authorities urging to take measures to ensure timely processing of permits required for transportation of agricultural products have resulted in reduction of the list of permits issued by permit centers and delegation the powers for the issue to the appropriate state authorities. In particular, certificates of quality of grain and its processing products were removed from the list of permits the issuance of which is carried out at permit centers. This improvement has been stipulated by the Law of Ukraine Amending Certain Laws of Ukraine Regarding Optimisation of Permits Issuance in the Field of Economic Activity No. 4782-VI that went into force on 23 June 2012.

We consider this legislative development as an important step to the improvement of certification procedure for transportation of agricultural products. And we will continue advocating for further improvement of the certification system for grain transportation and storage.