Sergii Lakhno – speaker at the Ukrainian Dairy Forum 2020

Sergii Lakhno, Counsel and Head of International Trade at INTEGRITES, spoke at the Ukrainian Dairy Forum 2020.

He focused on subsidies under the EU’s common agricultural policy (CAP) and covered the following issues:

• Implementing CAP, its pros, cons and impact on the agricultural sector of the emerging markets
• CAP reform in 1992-2003 and its components after reforms of 2013
• Experience of the European countries related to the subsidy of agricultural products. Case study of Poland
• State aid to the agricultural sector during the pandemic

Sergiy emphasized that the main reason for the increased market share of the European producers of dairy products on the Ukrainian market is subsidy of this industry by the European Commission and the European governments. This allows the producers to dump the market in Ukraine. The main task for the Ukrainian Government is both to support the national producers and to protect them from the growing subsidized import.

Among other speakers of the Forum were Mr. Vadym Chagarovsky, Head of Union of Dairy Enterprises of Ukraine, Mr. Mykola Solsky, Head of the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Mr. Lubomyr Dykun, Vice-President of the Association of Dairy Producers of Ukraine, Mr. Mikhailo Korylkevych, President of Ukrainian Cooperatives Federation, as well as business owners and experts in the field. They discussed the current situation in the dairy sector, challenges and development prospects, as well as presented the National Dairy Development Program of Ukraine for the next 10 years. The participants have also signed he Memorandum on cooperation between the dairy associations of Ukraine.