The Challenge

Ukraine’s agri-food sector represents around 10% of GDP and 40% of national exports. Yet many trade formalities in the sector remain paper-based and require in-person interactions. This undermines trader competitiveness and weakens the efficiency and effectiveness of border agencies tasked with protecting human, animal and plant health. Limited digital traceability and outdated veterinary tools constrain export capacity. While manual certification increases processing times and corruption risks, diverting resources from productive activities.

Overall, a lack of transparency and predictability in the system fuels uncertainty for businesses while limiting the authorities’ ability to exercise effective oversight. Moreover, modernising sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) controls and food safety systems is also critical to Ukraine’s EU integration.

To address these needs the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumer Protection (SSUFSCP) has launched the ‘eFood digitalisation project’, developing an online platform for trader engagement and a modular system to manage food safety, veterinary, and consumer protection procedures. However, despite progress, core processes on the platform remain fragmented. Food safety procedures are dispersed across systems, with 57% of public services still managed through unstructured formats such as Excel and PDFs.

 

What We Are Doing

This project will be the third under The Alliance’s Eastern Partnership (EaP) window, designed to support countries in the region in aligning with EU requirements while fostering a more inclusive trade environment and enhancing governance. The Alliance will directly support the SSUFSCP to advance its eFood digitalisation project through the:

  1. Development of a front-end for the eFood public services system – a one stop shop for all services provided by the agency
  2. Implementation of four e-services for the certification of exports of food products of animal and non-animal origin

The project will be delivered in close coordination with SSUFSCP’s Office of Digitalisation to ensure alignment with broader digital transformation efforts. Active engagement of agency staff in technical validation, system testing, and training will be prioritised to ensure sustainability.

Guided by the Alliance’s public-private partnership approach, the project will provide multiple options for private sector participation. Ukrainian and international agri-food companies, as well as the business associations that represent them, will be able to provide technical inputs to develop IT solutions requirements, test new systems, share experiences and information on best practices and raise awareness for a successful adoption of the digital tools that will be deployed.

 

The Impacts

The eFood interface will enable SSUFSCP to manage digital services, data, and market interactions more transparently and efficiently. Export e-services will simplify and harmonise SPS procedures, improving EU and international market access for agri-food SMEs.

This project will deliver tangible results on trade competitiveness and daily operations for SSUFSCP and its almost 2 million users:

  • Reduce processing time and costs (certifications, permits, etc.)
  • Help bring food-related businesses out of the informal economy
  • Enable secure information exchange with other systems
  • Prevent document fraud and counterfeiting
  • Decrease direct contact with officials, mitigating the risk of corruption
  • Increase accountability through the traceability of each action