OBSTACLES ON THE WAY OF UKRAINIAN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS TO THE EU MARKET

Abstract

Introduction. One of the most important geopolitical events of the last decade was the signing of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. The economic part of the agreement was embodied in the creation of a deep and comprehensive free trade area (DCFTA), which opened up fundamentally new qualitative and quantitative opportunities for Ukrainian producers to expand their presence in the rich European market. At the same time, as the experience of the first years of free trade has shown, the creation of the DCFTA does not automatically guarantee the promotion of agricultural development and improvement of trade conditions between Ukraine and the EU. Currently, Ukraine does not use all the reserves for increasing domestic agricultural exports to the EU market. The reason for this is the economic, financial, organizational, political and other problems that impede the faster pace of Ukrainian-European integration in the agricultural sector.

Purpose. The purpose of the article is to systematize and classify the reasons that impede the movement of Ukrainian agricultural products to the EU market.

The results. The systematization and generalization of the information on the topic under study allow us to classify the key problems that prevent Ukrainian farmers from using the reserves of the DCFTA between Ukraine and the EU:

1) subjective problems:

- inconsistency of state agricultural policy (allocation of funds to support agriculture on a residual basis; excessive costs of aid distribution; non-transparent mechanism of aid distribution, etc.);

- the incomplete process of harmonizing Ukrainian legislation with the EU regulatory framework (environment; climate change; rural development; quality and safety of agricultural products, etc.);

- lack of extensive production and technological ties between Ukraine and the EU (predominance of raw materials in the export of Ukrainian agri-food products to the EU market);

- non-compliance of the quality of Ukrainian agricultural products with European phytosanitary standards;

- low share of high-margin products in the structure of Ukrainian agricultural exports to the EU market;

- insufficient development of transport and logistics infrastructure in the western direction;

2) objective problems:

- russian military aggression;

- shortage of state budget funds to finance environmental, infrastructure and other projects as part of the integration of Ukraine's and the EU's living space;

- shortage of state budget funds to support agricultural producers (stagnation of livestock farming, stagnation in the production of fruit and berry and viticulture products; shortage of agricultural production infrastructure, primarily fruit and vegetable storage facilities, etc.);

- complex and costly procedure for certification of agricultural products;

- low volume of duty-free export quotas.

Originality. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that for the first time the problems that impede the increase of Ukrainian agricultural exports to the EU market were systematized and classified, with the objective and subjective components being distinguished.

Conclusions. The signing of the DCFTA between Ukraine and the EU does not create automatic guarantees for the development of domestic agriculture and unimpeded access of Ukrainian agricultural products to the EU market.

The key barriers to the export of Ukrainian agricultural products to the EU market can be divided into two conventional groups - objective and subjective. The key objective problems include, first of all, Russian military aggression and the shortage of state budget funds to finance joint Ukrainian-European projects and support agricultural producers; low export duty-free quotas. The key subjective problems include, first of all, the lack of extensive production and technological ties between Ukraine and the EU countries; low quality of Ukrainian agricultural products, primarily livestock, fresh vegetables, fruits, etc.; insufficient development of transport and logistics infrastructure in the western direction, etc.

A promising direction for further research in this area is to substantiate the organizational and economic mechanism for deepening Ukrainian-European production cooperation, including the development of joint projects of transport and logistics infrastructure; substantiation of arguments and proposals for mutual concessions in order to increase quotas for duty-free exports of Ukrainian agricultural products; development of a state program to improve the quality of agri-food products.