Nearly 30% of the EU’s Organic Grain Imports Come from Ukraine: Its Organic Laws and Certification

The EU imported about 310,000 tonnes of organic grain in 2025, of which about 86,000 tonnes, or 27.7%, came from Ukraine — the largest share of any country. According to a report compiled by the European Commission in June 2026, Ukraine was also the fifth-largest source, by volume, of the EU’s organic agri-food imports as a whole.

Ukraine has a law governing organic production and labelling, and a national “organic” logo. At the same time, much of the organic produce it exports has operated under certification based on the standards of its export destinations, such as the EU. This article looks at the law, the logo, the certification and registration system, and export figures, drawing on the text of the legislation and published material from the responsible ministry and the European Commission. The figures are those published as of September 2026.

The 2018 Law and the National “Organic” Logo

The basis has been Law No. 2496-VIII of 10 July 2018, “On the Basic Principles and Requirements for Organic Production, Circulation and Labelling of Organic Products.” Its final provisions state that the law takes effect the day after promulgation, and comes into operation one year after that. It was promulgated in the parliamentary newspaper Holos Ukrainy on 1 August 2018, which puts the start of its operation, by this calculation, at 2 August 2019.

Under Article 34 of the law, a product may be labelled “organic” if it is produced in accordance with legal requirements and at least 95% of its agricultural ingredients, by weight excluding water and salt, are organic. Its production must be backed by a certificate from a certification body.

Organic products must carry the national “organic product logo.” According to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, which is responsible for this area, the logo was established by the Ministry’s Order No. 67 of 22 February 2019. Below the logo, a code combining the following three elements must appear (Article 34, paragraph 4).

• an abbreviation indicating the country of production
• the word “organic”
• the registration number of the certifying body

It is prohibited to put the logo, or to use words such as “organic,” “bio” or “eco,” on products still in the “transition period” of converting to organic, or on non-organic products (Article 34, paragraphs 5 and 11). The Ministry explains that organic products carrying the logo began appearing on shelves only from September 2023.

Two Certification Bodies Under Ukraine’s Standard, 293 Registered Operators

Under the law’s framework, organic certification against Ukraine’s own standard is carried out by certification bodies listed in a state register. A certification body enters the register only after being accredited by the national accreditation body. According to the Ministry, the first accreditation was granted in May 2023 and the second in 2024, and as of the end of 2024 there were two certification bodies on the register.

The state register of “operators” — producers, processors and others certified under Ukraine’s standard — began in August 2023. The Ministry’s published register (as of 12 September 2025) lists 293 operators, covering crop cultivation as well as livestock farming, beekeeping, feed, food processing and more.

Exports Have Been Certified Under EU and US Standards

Most of Ukraine’s organic production is certified not against the domestic standard but against the standards of export destinations. In a survey the Ministry conducted by asking foreign certification bodies, land certified under standards equivalent to the EU’s, or under the US National Organic Program (NOP), including land still in transition, stood at 471,176 hectares as of 31 December 2023 — 1.1% of all of Ukraine’s farmland.

Organic Exports to the EU: Half Are Grain

The European Commission compiles figures on organic imports from records in the EU’s electronic system, TRACES. According to its report of June 2026, the EU’s organic agri-food imports in 2025 came to 2,976,129 tonnes, up 12.8% on the previous year and the highest since records began in 2018.

Imports from Ukraine came to 174,701 tonnes, down 14.3% from 203,897 tonnes the previous year. By country, this ranked fifth, after Ecuador, China, Peru and the Dominican Republic, at 5.9% of the total. In 2024, the volume from Ukraine had been the third-largest, after Ecuador and China.

Of the organic imports from Ukraine, grain accounted for nearly half (49.1%) in 2025. The Ministry names maize, soybeans and sunflower meal as the top organic export items in 2023.

The New 2026 Law and the 2029 Switchover

On 30 June 2026, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a new law governing organic production, Law No. 4921-IX, “On State Regulation of Organic Production, Circulation and Labelling.” On 20 July the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food announced that the president had signed it, explaining that it aligns Ukraine with EU legal requirements and is one of the commitments under Chapter 11, “Agriculture and Rural Development,” of the EU accession negotiations.

According to the parliament’s legal database, the law was promulgated on 21 July 2026, with some provisions taking effect the following day, 22 July. The law as a whole takes effect three years after promulgation, on 21 July 2029, on which date the 2018 law is repealed. Certificates issued before then remain valid until their expiry.

The Ministry lists among the contents of the new law a system in which certification bodies carry out inspections under state oversight, “group certification” allowing small producers to be certified together, and a register of organic livestock.

With Japan

The countries and regions that Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries lists as having mutually recognised “equivalence” in organic standards with Japan (as of 1 April 2026) are the United States, the EU, Canada, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and Switzerland; Ukraine is not among them. The procedures for importing food into Japan are covered in the article on the procedures and contact points for importing Ukrainian food into Japan.