The export of Ukrainian food products to the United Arab Emirates in recent years shows a negative trend and at the moment it accounts for less than 1% of export earnings. This may be due to difficulties with the "Halal" certification, which began to be felt last year.
The State Service for Food Safety and Consumer Protection (State Food Service) reported that from February 2017, the UAE will start using a different procedure for controlling the sale of halal products, so the Ukrainian certification centers need to register with the Office of Standardization and Metrology of the UAE. It is likely that this procedure will take a long time, jeopardizing the readiness of Ukrainian certificates.
“If Ukrainian authorities fail to renew certification almost immediately, exporters will be obliged to delay supplies. This may adversely affect Ukrainian food exports to the UAE, which has begun to decline in recent years. In 2013-2015, profits from food supply to this country decreased from 165 million dollars to 134 million dollars, and for 11 months of 2016 the amount was 106 million dollars.The trend is disappointing, "- said the Director of the Council on Food Export (UFEB) Bogdan Shapoval.
According to the latest available statistics, in January-November 2016, Ukraine supplied food products to the United Arab Emirates in the amount of $ 105,500,000, which equals to 0.7% of the total amount of land exports of our state in the designated period. The main supplies in the UAE were: vegetable oil (50% of income), chicken eggs (17%), grain crops (11%) and chicken (5%). In terms of dairy product deliveries, it is possible to judge the untapped potential in trade relations between the UAE and Ukraine, since they accounted for only 1.6% of total revenues. 
