One-third of coffee enters Ukraine through smuggling, state budget loses UAH 1 bln annually – MP Hetmantsev
MP Danylo Hetmantsev, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy, has called on the State Customs Service of Ukraine and the Bureau of Economic Security to pay closer attention to the coffee market, where one-third of products are brought in through smuggling.
"Three thousand tons of illegal coffee (or every third tonne) enter Ukraine each year through smuggling, right past the deliberately closed eyes of customs officers and law enforcement. Often under the guise of chicory – the volume of which, by the way (did you really switch to drinking chicory instead of water?), has increased several times over the past two years. Or it's brought in completely off the books," he wrote on his Telegram channel.
According to the MP, this coffee is then either sold for cash or packaged under international brands and also sold for cash.
"And this isn't only at Stolychka or Volynska markets in Kyiv, or Seventh Kilometer in Odesa. It's also numerous food retail chains, fragmented across sole proprietors," Hetmantsev stressed.
He calculated that this group of goods alone costs the state more than UAH 1 billion annually, while consumers end up with low-quality counterfeit products.
"The inability of the state to stand up to fraudsters – or the ability of certain 'state officials' to participate in their schemes – is astounding," the head of the parliamentary committee said indignantly, urging the State Customs Service and Bureau of Economic Security to focus on the coffee market.