The introduction of a new mechanism for determining critically important enterprises and possible changes in the procedure for reserving workers are causing serious concern for agricultural business.

This was stated by the Deputy Chairman of the Ukrainian Agri Council, Denys Marchuk.

On July 16, the Cabinet of Ministers adopted a decision to create a Coordination Center for the Organization of Reservation, which will consider proposals regarding granting enterprises critically important status. The mechanism of the new body's operation and the criteria for evaluating enterprises so far remain unclear for business, and there is also no rational explanation of the purpose for which the new body is being introduced.

"The creation of the Coordination Center has raised many questions. It is declared that it will assess an enterprise's compliance with critically important status. But the ministries will submit to the new body documents that have already passed a check for compliance with the criteria defined in Order of the Ministry of Economy No. 6954. That is, at this stage there should be no grounds for refusing to grant criticality, and a refusal on some other grounds is a priori a violation of the law. Business must clearly understand the rules, rather than operate under conditions of constant uncertainty," Denys Marchuk emphasized.

According to Marchuk, additional risks are created by information about the possible temporary suspension of reservation through the Diia portal in connection with the updating of the procedure. This may lead to a situation where enterprises will not be able to re-reserve their workers in a timely manner.

"Even if an enterprise obtains critically important status, the absence of a fast reservation mechanism will create serious problems. In fact, for agricultural enterprises, a situation may arise where an enterprise whose reservation terms expired in July–August will not be able to re-reserve its workers. If the Diia portal is not working, during this period there is a very high probability that a worker will be declared wanted, which will make their further reservation at the enterprise impossible. For the agricultural sector, this is critical, since in a month the sowing of winter crops will begin, and right now the harvest is underway. It is important to prevent agricultural enterprises from being left without key workers," the Deputy Chairman of the UAC emphasized.

The Ukrainian Agri Council emphasizes that any delays in the reservation of machine operators, tractor drivers, and combine operators at the height of field work may jeopardize the timely harvesting of crops, which creates risks not only for individual farms, but also for the country's food security.