In my opinion, the talks about the ban of the second grade milk are just media hype. Such talks – on how to ban the second grade milk that does not meet European standards – has been periodically raised since 2010-2012. There have been several active periods of discussion, when the theme of the cancellation of the second grade was raised. But everyone understood that this is about the milk produced in rural households and banning the use of such milk would lead to certain social consequences.

Now this topic is again under discussion. I think this is due to the adoption of the Law “On the State Control» (№0906), which has been passed in our Parliament. In fact, the situation on milk quality is quite uncertain. First of all, our standard regarding the quality of milk, does not comply with European directives containing requirements to processing of milk products intended for public consumption. There are also permits for milk processing into products used for the production of animal feed.

In Ukraine, the attempt to develop a new national standard that applies to milk has been taken for several years. The draft standard was already criticized a year and a half ago, because it was imperfect. In addition, it was developed without taking into account the European directives. This standard, luckily, was not put into effect.

In my opinion, we should forget the “milk grade” combination of words, that is, forget about grading of milk “by grades”. We should be guided only by milk safety indicators. Only after we define the parameters of milk safety, we can develop the standards.

Speaking about the price of milk depending on its grade, I would like to say that today the price is determined not by the milk grade, but by the market. All these talks about the price difference varieties are rather conventional. Now the price of milk of the first grade in one region may be higher than the price of milk of the premium grade in the other. That is why I believe that the grade of milk is a conditional thing that does not affect the price. The price is negotiable.

Once the safety parameters of milk are defined, the talks about the second grade milk will immediately disappear. Safety will be the only indicator.In addition, it should be noted that in Ukraine there is also the shadow market of dairy products. This is the cash operated market. Small “dairies” which do not report to anyone are buying raw materials from households for cash and then sell their produce also for cash. They sell their dairy products mostly on local markets or from stalls. Some of them even do some marketing efforts – for example, advertise their products as “authentic”, “farm made” or “homemade”. This is the black market. And introducing the ban for the second grade milk we will not stop this market. The “forbidden milk” will go into the shadow.

So I think the emphasis on the actions taken to improve the quality of milk should be on just terms of safety, not on the ban of some milk grades.