The V International Compliance Forum was held in Kyiv on the 16th of September. The forum was organized by Legal Practice with the support of UNIC - All-Ukrainian Network of Integrity and Compliance
Business integrity - myth or reality? The participants of the first session of the forum were looking for an answer to this question. Serhiy Derkach, Head of the Prevention and Detection of Corruption Department of the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NAPCA), Tetyana Korotka, Deputy Business Ombudsman in Ukraine, Antonina Prudko, Head of the UNIC Secretariat, Mykola Babenko, Chairman of the Board of SOC Ukraine , Maryna Voshchilko, Member of the Supervisory Board of PJSC Globus Bank, and Oleksandr Ganzha, Compliance Manager Dr. Reddy's Laboratories (CIS and Romania).
Mykola Babenko, who still heads the Meat Industry Association, told the forum participants about the practical nuances of compliance as a tool for gaining a competitive advantage on the example of the meat industry. "Prevention is always better than cure. Compliance and integrity help to prevent problems that may put pressure on business over time, and provide an opportunity to integrate into the global market, to become competitive in the context of globalization. The main thing is that non-compliance with high standards of doing business is costly for producers, processors and consumers.
There is a lot of talk about the mass closure of pig farms in Ukraine, and now also dairy farms. Prices for milk and meat in Ukraine are among the highest in the world. High prices lead to a reduction in domestic consumption of meat and milk (by half the average in the European region), an increase in imports, the impossibility of exports and a further decline in national production.
The main reason for the reduction in production and high prices is overspending, abuse and corruption in animal husbandry, the direct consequences of which were inflated and completely uncompetitive costs of meat and dairy products. The high cost of animal husbandry is laid down the chain in the prices of the processing industry. Thus, Ukrainian products become uncompetitive and lose to imports. A powerful, traditional sector of the economy is collapsing instead of becoming a driver of Ukraine's development, attracting investment and improving the foreign trade balance, rural development.
Therefore, according to Mykola Babenko, compliance with the standards of integrity and transparency is the basis of doing business. CoFarming Ukraine and members of the Meat Industry Association are working to ensure that outdated production models and non-transparent methods of decision-making in Ukrainian animal husbandry are a thing of the past, yielding to the world's best standards of efficiency, controllability and automation. Processors have the competencies and resources to double, triple meat production, enter foreign markets and integrate into the global market. The Ukrainian meat industry will be able to show that being honest in business is profitable.
Press service of the Meat Industry Association