Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy, Danylo Getmantsev addressed the State Customs Service of Ukraine and the Bureau of Economic Security with a call to focus attention on the coffee market, a third of which is smuggled.
“3 thousand tons of illegal coffee (or every third ton) is smuggled into Ukraine a year, past the wide-open eyes of customs officials and law enforcement officers. Under the guise of chicory, the volume of imports (did you really start drinking chicory instead of water?) which has grown many times over the past two years. Or in black at all,” Hetmantsev noted.
According to the deputy, such coffee is then either sold for cash or packaged under well-known international brands and sold without official registration.
“And it is not only “Stolichka”, “Volynska” in Kyiv, or “Seventh kilometer” in Odessa. These are also numerous food retail chains that have been divided into FOPs, Hetmantsev stressed.
He estimated that the state loses more than UAH 1 billion every year due to this product group alone, while consumers receive low-quality and counterfeit products.
“The inability of the state to confront fraudsters, or the ability of some “statesmen” to participate in them is impressive, emphasized the head of the committee, calling on the DMSU and BEB to pay special attention to the coffee market.
