Schemes for Blocking Cargo from the EU: Food Prices Are Rising, Partners' Trust Is Falling

Schemes for blocking cargo arriving from the European Union can have serious consequences not only for Ukrainian business but for every consumer. While food prices are rising and European partners’ trust in Ukraine is rapidly falling, the promised reform of the customs system remains on paper. At the center of the scandal are the head of the State Customs Service, Orest Mandziy, and the head of the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumer Protection, Serhiy Tkachuk, who are linked to corruption schemes that have been operating for more than one year. If previously the customs paid for smuggling and fed schemes inside the country, and the State Food Safety and Consumer Protection Service charged businesses and turned a blind eye to violations, leaving both consumers and entrepreneurs unprotected, now these schemes apparently have reached an international level.

At the center of this story is the Polish company OLVAR SP. Z O.O., which supplies perishable products to Ukraine. Deliveries are made on DAP (Delivered at Place) terms, which means that up to the moment of transfer of the goods to the Ukrainian buyer, all risks and costs due to delays in delivery are borne by the Polish supplier. Idle transport, additional logistics costs, contract cancellations, and even spoilage of goods are paid not by the Ukrainian side, but by the company from Poland. That is why multi-day delays at Ukrainian customs have become a problem not only for Ukraine but for the business of the European Union member state.

Formally, customs clearance should take no more than four hours. In reality, however, some shipments remained under customs control for two, three, four, and in some cases almost five days. Initially, shipments were subjected to systematic customs inspections, and after numerous complaints, the main tool of delays became laboratory tests. Without the laboratory conclusion, the goods simply were not released, even if all other controls had already been completed.

Most interestingly, this repeated almost the same scenario. Phytosanitary control, customs inspection, sampling, waiting for the laboratory—and only after that permission to release the goods. In some cases samples were taken twice: first during phytosanitary control, and then again during food control. As a result, perishable products remained at the customs for several days, even though other control procedures had been completed at the start of the clearance.

And the consequences did not take long to appear. After one such delay, an independent surveyor found that 89,52% of the products lost their commercial properties and became unsellable. For the Polish company, this means direct financial losses, as it is responsible under DAP for paying the costs of the idling. For Ukraine, this is a much bigger problem—when European business loses money due to the work of state bodies, it hits investor and partner trust much harder than any official reform statements.

Responsible for the operation of this system are the head of the State Customs Service, Orest Mandziy; the head of the Lviv Customs, Ivan Kerezvas; and the head of the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumer Protection, Serhiy Tkachuk. It is the State Food Safety and Consumer Protection Service that conducts food control, after which European shipments can remain under customs control for several more days. At the same time, Serhiy Tkachuk is a co-owner of LLC “PARTNERS-2014” and, according to the declaration for 2025 year, received 800 thousand hryvnias in dividends from this company. While Ukraine is persuading the EU to implement reforms and counting on further financial support, Polish business is forced to bear the consequences of multi-day delays at Ukrainian customs.

We have already sent a complaint to national institutions and international bodies with clear demands: conduct a full verification of the facts of systematic violation of terms of customs clearance of OLVAR SP. Z O.O. goods, establish the causes of the exceedance of prescribed deadlines, verify the legal grounds for conducting customs inspections and sampling, the results of laboratory tests, and the actions of the State Customs Service to ensure compliance with the requirements of the Customs Code of Ukraine. If, even this time, state bodies limit themselves to formal replies instead of real verification, the next recipient of our appeals will be the updated Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, which must stop the practice that harms European business and discredits Ukraine in the eyes of international partners.

European business should not pay for others’ schemes, and Ukraine should not lose the trust of strategic partners because of the work of individual officials. If multi-day delays at the border have become the norm, and instead of checks state bodies only send formal replies, a natural question arises: is this really the reform that Ukraine presents to the European Union on its path to membership?