Thursday, July 17, 2008

European Commission to inspect Ukraine's production and processing capacities - UkrOilProm

In September, the European Commission will inspect Ukraine's production and processing capacities and will check a sunflower oil control and certification system, as the UkrOilProm association reported.

Experts say the export resumption to the EU could help sell a product surplus the dairymen piled up due to sunflower oil export quota that ran in Ukraine March to June. More than 10 enterprises had to suspend operation because of export blockade and storage facility overstock; a piled up sunflower oil volume is valued at more than 300,000 tons.

Despite lifting restrictions from the sunflower oil export in late May, export supplies were not large-scale and were mainly preformed by land transport, UkrOilProm head Stepan Kapshuk noted. According to him, no one took the risk of transporting via ports, taking into account the problems with the EU.

Based on preliminary data, the sunflower oil export totaled around 60,000 ton in June. Experts say if the export is unblocked to the EU, the figure will double.

About 50% of all export deliveries of sunflower oil from Ukraine accounts for the EU.