Current State Of The Organic Market In Ukraine: Advantages And Disadvantages

The article analyses the current state of the Ukrainian organic products market and its problems, which are hampering the market’s development; a number of solutions are suggested. The prospects of the Ukrainian organic market are determined, taking into account favorable soil and climate conditions, the increasing popularity of organic products worldwide and the low potential of the European market to meet the demand for such products. The area of agriculture land occupied by organic products, the share of organic agriculture land in the total amount of the agriculture land, the number of operators of the Ukrainian organic market, organic consumption and organic retail sales, as well as areas of significant organic crop lands in domestic production are analysed from 2008 to 2017. The development of the organic sector in Ukraine is restrained by: a weak legislative framework, low level of governmental support, unstable political and economic conditions, low solvency of Ukrainians, lack of awareness of the population about the usefulness of organic products as well asв their unawareness of the harmful effects on the environments of intensive methods of production; difficult process of transition to organic production, expensive certification services and high credit rates. Current issues could be solved by implementing the following measures: bringing domestic legislation into compliance with European legislation, intensive involvement of the state, support through measures such as preferential lending, provision of subsidies to small and medium businesses in organic sector and of the advisory services in the organic production; encouragement of state support to attract foreign capital through tax incentives, introduction of state preferential crediting of organic sector, creation of a domestic certification body, simplification of the system of transition to organic production.