Exporting organic products to Ukraine
Ukraine recognises foreign certification bodies one by one, not countries. Whether your certifier appears on the state list is the question that decides everything else.
1) Mandatory organic standards and labels
The operative law is the 2018 Law on Basic Principles and Requirements for Organic Production, Circulation and Labelling of Organic Products, in force since 2019 and applying expressly to products imported into Ukraine. Detailed rules sit in Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 970 and in ministerial orders covering the state logo and permitted substances.
A new law has been adopted but does not yet govern imports. A replacement law transposing EU Regulation (EU) 2018/848 was adopted and signed in 2026, but its main provisions enter into force three years after publication, with a further three-year labelling transition. Plan against the 2018 law and Resolution 970 for now.
The state logo
Ukraine's state organic mark is a square white field with a green outline, containing overlapping yellow and blue circles whose overlap forms a green leaf, above the words ОРГАНІЧНИЙ ПРОДУКТ or ORGANIC PRODUCT. A version missing any element — image, wording or square — is invalid. Its use has been mandatory for Ukrainian organic product sold on the domestic market since July 2024.
A code number must appear directly beneath the logo, combining the country acronym, the word organic, and the certification body's registration code — for example UA-ORGANIC-001.
Imported product cannot carry the Ukrainian state logo unless the operator is certified under Ukrainian law and entered in the State Register of Operators. The logo is tied to Ukrainian certification, not to organic status. Imported goods rely on their own mark, usually the EU leaf.
Protected terms
It is prohibited to label non-organic or in-conversion product with the state logo or with органічний, біодинамічний, біологічний, екологічний, органік, any cognate word, or біо- and еко- prefixes, in any language. Imported products carrying such words in their product name must render them as organic product on the Ukrainian label.
2) Important voluntary standards and labels
- EU organic (Regulation 2018/848) — commercially the most important non-state standard in Ukraine. The euro-leaf is the mark Ukrainian consumers recognise, and the overwhelming majority of Ukrainian organic trade is with Europe.
- Organic Standard LLC — the incumbent domestic certification body and the reference point for the sector; it certifies to the EU regulation, Ukrainian law, the Canada Organic Regime, Bio Suisse, Naturland and KRAV.
- Bio Suisse — required for the Swiss Bud market. Naturland for Germany, KRAV for Sweden.
Several widely cited English-language guides to Ukraine are badly out of date, including some that still refer to the repealed 2013 law or describe the state logo as unusable. Check the date on anything you read about this market.
3) Approved certification and control bodies
Ukraine maintains two separate lists, and confusing them is the commonest importer error.
The State Register of Certification Bodies
Bodies entitled to certify under Ukrainian law. Requirements include inspectors who have passed the ministry qualification exam and accreditation by the National Accreditation Agency of Ukraine. The register is maintained by the ministry responsible for agriculture — note that the Ministry of Agrarian Policy has been merged into the Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture, and the registers now sit on that ministry's site.
The List of Foreign Certification Bodies
This is the list that matters for imports. It is maintained not by the ministry but by Derzhprodspozhyvsluzhba, the State Service on Food Safety and Consumer Protection, and contains over a hundred foreign bodies, the large majority from EU member states.
A foreign body applies to be listed by filing a free-form application with Derzhprodspozhyvsluzhba, stating its name and home state in its own language, evidence of accreditation in the relevant organic scope by a national accreditation body party to international or regional recognition agreements, and the authority that supervises it.
4) Import requirements
Three checks are required before organic goods are brought into Ukraine:
- The product holds a valid organic certificate.
- The foreign certification body that issued it appears on the official List of Foreign Certification Bodies recognised in Ukraine.
- The labelling complies with Ukrainian organic legislation — protected terms, the organic product rendering on the Ukrainian label, and the certification body registration code.
Where the legislation so provides, the importer itself must also be certified under Ukrainian organic law.
This is body-level recognition, not country-level equivalence. There is no arrangement mechanism comparable to the Swiss country annex or the GB registers. What governs is whether your certifier is listed. The practical effect for EU-certified goods is small, because most EU bodies are listed — but it must be checked, not assumed.
US NOP certification alone does not qualify a product as organic in Ukraine, and the USDA organic export certificate is not officially recognised. EU certification does allow placement on the organic shelf.
There is no Ukrainian equivalent of a TRACES electronic certificate for inbound goods. The documentary requirement is a copy of the certificate confirming compliance with the standard under which the product is labelled, accompanying the consignment.
Organic rules sit on top of the ordinary food safety, veterinary and phytosanitary import regime, which returned to full enforcement after the wartime relaxations. Derzhprodspozhyvsluzhba has issued a public restatement of importer obligations, which suggests increased enforcement attention on mislabelled organic imports.
5) Further information
- Law No. 2496-VIII on organic productionThe operative Ukrainian organic law; an English version is available on the same page.
- Derzhprodspozhyvsluzhba — organic productsImport and export requirements, and the sub-pages holding the list of recognised foreign certification bodies.
- State registers in the organic fieldCertification bodies, operators and organic planting material, hosted by the Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture.
- Ministry overview of the Ukrainian organic sectorEnglish-language summary of the legal framework and register history.
- Organic Standard — Ukrainian organic lawA certifier's summary of the four key instruments and the available certification routes.
Last reviewed: 2026-09-06