Ukrainian experts held a working meeting in Berlin with German importers of timber products and discussed the digital services that already enable Ukrainian exporters to meet the requirements of the EUDR deforestation regulation, which will come into force in 2027.
“We spoke with representatives of the German Timber Council and the working group on the processing of raw timber. They shared their expectations regarding the EUDR and were keen to know how prepared Ukrainian exporters are to meet the requirements of this regulation. And they were pleasantly impressed by the level of readiness of our forestry sector to provide all the information necessary for export,” noted Mariana Ostrovska, Head of the International Relations, Science and Public Relations Sector at the State Forest Resources Agency.
According to the German experts, the EU’s electronic system, which collects all the necessary information to meet the EUDR requirements, is currently operating in test mode, which has already revealed certain issues in its operation. At the same time, they explained what information is currently being entered into the system.
“For our part, we spoke about the work of our Electronic Exporter’s Office, which already today enables Ukrainian businesses to meet absolutely all EUDR requirements and freely export their products to the EU. In particular, to provide in electronic format all necessary documents regarding the origin of timber, its legal harvesting, and confirmation that this has not caused deforestation. According to our German colleagues, no other EU country currently has a digital service of this calibre,” emphasised Mariana Ostrovska. As a reminder, the Ukrainian delegation, led by the First Deputy Head of the State Forest Resources Agency, Volodymyr Buchko, is working in Germany at the invitation of the management of the consortium of the German project SFI to support the integration of the forestry sector. The current phase of the project aims to enhance capacity in the areas of forest policy, management and sustainable forestry, drawing on European and German experience, integrated into the broader context of Ukraine’s EU accession process.
