Western Producer reporter Karen Briere travelled to Ukraine and reports on Canada’s role in development programs.
KIEV, Ukraine – There is no doubt Ukrainian farmers can produce grain – this year’s harvest was estimated at 50 million tonnes.
But grain quality continues to be an industry-wide concern, considering 70 to 80 percent of the wheat is feed grade.
As part of Canada’s ongoing efforts to help Ukrainian farmers, the Canadian International Development Agency is funding a project to, among other things, establish new grain quality standards and storage requirements.
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Larysa Tykhonenko, area manager of grain quality for the Canada-Ukraine Grain Project Phase 2, said the first draft of the new standards has been developed and submitted to the industry for comment.
The current standards were introduced in 2004.
“It was not very successful at incorporating international experience into Ukrainian markets,” she said.
“In Europe and North America, people are grading wheat on the basis of the protein content, gluten and gluten quality.”
Wheat is classed differently in Ukraine, depending on protein, gluten content and pest damage.
Tykhonenko said Ukrainian producers often have crops with high protein levels but poor gluten quality and content.
“Consequently, the wheat is assigned a high grade and a high price, but it cannot be used for milling.”
Poor agronomic management is mainly to blame, she said.
Farmers often don’t plant good quality seed and rarely use certified seed. They don’t watch their crops carefully enough for pests or spend money to control them.
She also said the standards for allowable impurities were inherited from the former Soviet Union and were developed 30 to 35 years ago.
“The international market is going further,” she said.
Ukraine joined the World Trade Organization, which is also influencing the discussion of standards.
“We have started to harmonize the requirements toward European regulations,” Tykhonenko said.
“The new system is to include gluten and harmonization of impurities (regulations) with Europe.”
She said North American regulations are even stricter, but that is not Ukraine’s primary market.
“In more than 10 years there have been only three shipments of Ukrainian wheat to Canada,” she said.
In October, Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko said the agriculture ministry had to upgrade its standards to enable more exports of milling wheat.
Most in the industry agree, but change is slow.
Tykhonenko said too many farmers are happy being one of the world’s major feed suppliers. She suggested the food crisis and food-versus-fuel debate might change that.
As well, Ukrainians should demand better quality of their own food.
The $4.8 million grain project is paid for by the Canadian International Development Agency and implemented by CanEd International Inc., a development organization. The second phase began in 2006 and runs through 2009.
Other facets include the international accreditation of grain testing labs in Ukraine, market and supply chain development, business planning and risk management, and developing loan programs for farmers.
The project also focuses on gender equity. More than 20 percent of farmers are women.
Andriy Halyas, an agricultural economist with the project, said farmers need better access to market and production information so they can make decisions about their farms. Those who farmed under the state and collective farming system aren’t yet used to that ability.
He said many are interested in organic farming as a way to increase profits.
“According to our geographical position we are situated next to the largest consumer, in Europe,” he said.
Project staff members are also developing regulations for warehouse certification to ensure grain storage standards are met.
Halyas said the large 2008 crop means a lot of grain will be lost if it isn’t sold. On-farm storage is not common.
“The huge elevators are controlled by companies that just want to store their own grain,” he said.
Some producers are looking at the plastic grain bags now becoming common in Western Canada.
