How imports of goods have changed since the beginning of the war
On February 24, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In the early hours of the war, there were incredibly long queues at ATMs, pharmacies and supermarkets. People were preparing for the worst and did not know what awaited them in the near future.
The shortage of goods in stores, the closure of factories and famine – these were the forecasts of the society. For manufacturers, grocery stores and logistics companies, the war has also become a big challenge, channel 24 reports.
At the same time, we now see that in cities and towns that are not occupied by the Russian Federation and are not on the verge of humanitarian catastrophe – in stores you can buy everything you need, and even more. However, supermarket shelves have undergone visual changes, as products in unusual packaging appeared on them.
Where did the shortage of the first days of the war go
Of course, in the early days of the war, supermarkets and consumers faced a shortage of a certain category of goods. This is because many Ukrainian enterprises, food warehouses and production facilities found themselves in the epicenter of hostilities. Some were completely destroyed by the Russian invaders, others were partially destroyed, but without the ability to continue working.
In particular, the Trostyanets confectionery factory, which is owned by Mondelis Ukraine, suffered extensive damage, while the Coca-Cola plant in the Kiev region became a target for Russian shelling, and production equipment was damaged there.
Violation of logistics and operation of supermarkets
Another reason for the shortage was the destruction of many logistics warehouses, so the goods became simply impossible to ship. Even those enterprises that were in safe areas and continued to operate also experienced economic problems, because due to disruptions in logistics and lack of raw materials, they had to reduce production volumes or temporarily suspend it.
From the first days of the war, women with children left Ukraine en masse, running away from the war. Therefore, supermarkets were losing both employees and products, dismantled at an incredible speed, and there was no new one yet.
According to the Association of Retailers of Ukraine, more than 15% of mini- and supermarkets of the total.
“At the beginning of the war, we had 736 grocery stores. Now there are 436. Yes, 59 are partially or completely destroyed, another 40 are on guard duty in the combat zone. In a frozen food warehouse near Brovary, an enemy missile destroyed 10,000 pallets of 560 million hryvnias. Our central production in Vorzel has been completely plundered. Total losses already exceed 2.4 billion hryvnias. But we will survive”, – they say in the networkFozzi Group.
< p>After the first stage of shock and awareness of new realities in cities where there was no active hostilities, retail outlets began to reopen, and big business did everything to adapt to these new extreme military conditions and provide people with food and essential goods.
Import helped Ukrainians and businesses
From the first day of the war, the government of Ukraine approved a list of critical imports. It includes the most important goods, the production of which is temporarily impossible in Ukraine due to the Russian invasion. On April 20, the government once again made changes to the list. It includes military goods, medical products, hygiene products, tobacco products, as well as food products: meat, dairy products, vegetable oil, vegetables, coffee, tea, some grains, canned vegetables, drinks, etc.
According to the NBU, the list of critical imports already covers about 88% of all imports to Ukraine in 2021. At the same time, the government is constantly updating and changing this list in accordance with the needs of Ukraine.
Who supplies goods from abroad and why the packaging has changed
After the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers on critical imports, large retail chains started looking for alternative suppliers of goods and launched their own imports. Poland, the Baltic States and Turkey became the main suppliers. kak-izmenilsja-import-tovarov-s-nachala-vojny-a4c7181.jpg” alt=”Unusual packaging in Ukrainian supermarkets: how imports of goods have changed since the beginning of the war” />
In particular, the Fozzi Group network now independently imports frozen fish, vegetables, fruits, cereals and canned food to Ukraine.
Atb supermarket chain has also established direct imports. The company carries out direct imports of canned meat and fish, pasta, dry concentrates of soups and cereals, confectionery, drinks.
In order for imports to start working quickly and smoothly, the government allowed the sale of imported products without appropriate marking in Ukrainian, as it was before.
According to the ex-Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Roman Leshchenko, the country is doing everything to so that the supply of imported products under martial law is stable.
The balance of food products, the production of meat and dairy products and the food security of the state depend primarily on this. We have eliminated bureaucratic barriers that hinder the import of imported products during the war,” Leshchenko explained.
The presence of unusual packaging on store shelves is explained by the fact that in the event of a closure of facilities due to hostilities, market operators are allowed to use leftover food and feed packaging or containers for their intended purpose at other facilities that produce similar food and feed products. Therefore, the packaging of familiar goods may visually differ from what Ukrainians are used to seeing: labels may have a different color or shape, at the same time, all this is legal.
“The sale of imported food products without labeling in the Ukrainian language prescribed by law is caused by the inability to provide such labeling at enterprises that find themselves in temporarily occupied territories or in a war zone. After all, in peacetime, part of imported products was imported with labeling in the language of the country of production, and already in Ukraine, this labeling was carried out in accordance with the requirements of the law on consumer information regarding food products”,Director of the League of Food Producers Gennadiy Kuznetsov notes.
International producers also import under simplified procedures
Some international producers that had their own facilities in Ukraine, but today they stopped work because of Russia's war against Ukraine, they import here products manufactured at their factories abroad.
Among such companies are PepsiCo and Philip Morris International.
In particular, PepsiCo has already set up the process of importing its products to our country from other factories. Now Coca-Cola is also considering the possibility of importing under a simplified procedure.
Philip Morris International tobacco company was forced to close its production center, because it was located in the Kharkiv region, where fighting is now ongoing, and the region and the city daily shelled by Russian troops.
In this regard, in the near future the company will import its products to Ukraine from abroad, but in the packaging of European countries. However, it is important that all imported products of the company will have Ukrainian excise tax stamps and will contain a printed maximum retail price and production date.
“This is an emergency measure. We hope that we will be able to resume production in Ukraine as soon as it is safe for our workers. We are committed to providing the government with the necessary tax revenues from the import of products, on which the appropriate taxes and duties will be paid,” said the CEO of the company “Philip” Morris Ukraine” Maxim Barabash.
How to understand and verify that imports are legal
Those who know the current situation on the food market in the military time, it is no longer surprising that on the shelves you can find products of famous brands, but in unusual packaging.But the question remains whether this product was legally imported.
According to the director of the League of Food Producers Gennady Kuznetsov, despite the fact that each package does not have to be labeled in Ukrainian, there is another requirement for batches of imported food products. It must additionally be accompanied by mandatory information in the state language, which is provided by trade establishments at the request of consumers.
This is how you can make sure that the import is legal. After all, everyone has the right to contact the seller or store administrator with a request to provide information in Ukrainian about a food product.
Gennady Kuznetsov noted that if a batch is accompanied by information translated into Ukrainian, then there is a possibility that it was imported legally.
The legislation has been amended for the import of tobacco products
The situation is similar with imported tobacco products, because some major players in this market were forced to stop production.
The state met them halfway, and on March 15 additional changes were made to the legislation regulating the packaging of tobacco products. During martial law, the import and sale of tobacco products in Ukraine with labeling that meets the requirements of the EU countries is allowed, the expert adds.
How to distinguish smuggling of tobacco products
You can distinguish legal products from smuggling by three main features:
- excise stamp (may be light green, blue or orange-green);
- maximum retail price;
- date production indicated on the pack (not earlier than April 1, 2022).
The well-coordinated work of the government, manufacturers, enterprises and retail chains allows most regions today not to experience a shortage of food and essential goods. At the same time, I would like to hope that in the near future Ukraine will win, begin to restore the destroyed cities, and enterprises and industries will be able to resume their work.
