Ukraine may lose the rapeseed and corn markets of the EU — UGA

Ukraine may be banned to supply corn and rapeseed to European Union countries, due to exceeding of the permissible emissions of greenhouse gases in terms of the reporting crops growing, declared the acting Executive Director of Ukrainian Grain Association (UGA), Serhiy Ivaschenko.

He reminded that the European demand for rapeseed and corn is regulated by the Directive 2009/28/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of April 23, 2009, on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources. The main requirements of the Directive — it is necessary to calculate greenhouse gases emissions, and report on the emissions throughout the whole life cycle of crops, from which biofuels will be produced — during their cultivation and harvesting works, as well as further drying, storage and shipment.

To date, in Ukraine there are almost no reports and calculations on the corresponding level of greenhouse gases emissions in the production of agricultural products, in particular corn.

In 2017, the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting provided the pilot calculations of greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions based on real data from corn and rapeseed farms in Ukraine, within the GIZ Project “Supporting sustainable biomass production and use in Ukraine”, showed the excess of the permissible greenhouse gases emissions, when growing corn and rapeseed.

At the same time, two years ago competitors of Ukrainian agricultural producers — exporters of rapeseed from Australia and Canada — prepared the reports on their volume of greenhouse gases emissions by state (region), which the European Commission already approved.

Therefore, if the government and Ukrainian producers of rapeseed and corn want to continue having access on the European biofuel market, it is necessary to reduce their greenhouse gases emissions. In addition, the presence of such values of greenhouse gas emissions for rapeseed and corn from Ukraine, recognized by the European Commission, which would become lower than the new default standards, would allow achieving 50% of the emissions savings and offer the better levels of greenhouse gases emissions to companies-processors of Ukrainian rapeseed and corn for biofuels, S.Ivaschenko said.

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