Legal issues of viticulture in Ukraine

Abstract

In the article legal defects of viticulture legal regulation and their impact on current situation on grape production market in Ukraine have been considered. According to the Law of Ukraine «On Grapes and Grape Wine», dated June 16, 2005, viticulture is a set of organizational and technological methods of breeding, cultivation and harvest of grape. Analysis of the requirements of this law and other legal acts allows determining characteristics of viticulture, which significantly affect the specificity of regulation of said activity, namely:

1. a) Viticulture is a form of agricultural production and therefore falls under the regime of legal regulation of agricultural production;
2. b) Content of viticulture activities is growing grapes exclusively of specific technical varieties, determined depending on the variety of wine products;
3. c) Viticulture, as a specific type of agricultural activity, should be carried out only in the wine-growing areas and using prospective varieties of grapes;
4. d) Special legal personality of viticulture subjects is fixed in legislation. These subjects must perform specific duties, set out in legislation, and bear specific responsibility in the event of their failure.

According to requirements of the Law of Ukraine «On Grapes and Grape Wine», any agricultural commodity producers, irrespective of ownership forms and organizational- legal forms of activity, can become subjects of viticulture. Business entity must have vineyard on the property right or lease right as the main condition for activities in the field of viticulture. Ukrainian legislation acknowledges vineyards as industrial plantations of grapes for winemaking at area over 0.5 hectare. Grape plantings of technical and table varieties of grapes at the farms of all types of property are subject to registration by the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine. Now Ukraine has no inventory of vineyards with the identification of each land parcel and the determination of its geodetic coordinates. The Law of Ukraine «On Grapes and Grape Wine» establishes the duty of subjects of viticulture to plant vineyards for wine only in the wine-growing areas. Agricultural legislation provides that zone of viticulture and wine-growing areas should be defined.

Zone of viticulture is geographical territory of Ukraine, which has suitable agro-ecological conditions for grapes breeding. Today Ukrainian regulations do not determine zones of viticulture and wine-growing areas that complicates the implementation of the abovementioned obligations of viticulture subjects. Subjects of viticulture are obliged to plant vineyards using zoned or perspective varieties of grapes according to the project, which must be approved by the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine. Zoned varieties of grapes are defined in the legislation as defined for a particular zone of viticulture varieties of grapes that provide the greatest economic efficiency of viticulture and winemaking in this area and are included in State Register of varieties of plants, suitable for dissemination in Ukraine. The Law of Ukraine «On Grapes and Grape Wine» implies state census of vineyards at least once in 10 years. However, the procedure of this census is not legally defined yet. The feature of legal regulation of viticulture in Ukraine is a specific legal responsibility. It is fixed in Art. 15 of the Law of Ukraine «On Grapes and Grape Wine». This responsibility involves the possibility of applying to the guilty subjects of viticulture (legal entities and individuals-entrepreneurs) the economic legal responsibility. Such responsibility includes administrative economic sanctions for the following: a) laying the new or renovation of existing industrial plantations of grape varieties, which are not zoned, through public funding; b) thinning of vineyards, planted for funds of the State Budget.

Thus, Ukraine has a significant number of legal acts in the field of viticulture, but their efficiency is low. Reasons for this are significant legal defects, including gaps, and instability of legislation in the field of institutional and functional providing of viticulture and its state support. One of the conditions to improve the efficiency of viticulture legal regulation in Ukraine is to minimize mentioned legal defects, taking into consideration the necessity of economic activities deregulation and adaptation of national agricultural legislation with EU requirements.