DIRECTORATE EXECUTIVE

OF THE “UKRSIL” ASSOCIATION

IODIZED SALT SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS

IN UKRAINE

United Nations Children's Fund

UNICEF

KYIV 2002

ISBN

Iodized Salt Situational analysis in Ukraine has been prepared by Directorate Executive

of the “Ukrrsil” Association

Authors:

V. Yermakov – Director General of the "Ukrsil" Association

S. Galushko - First Deputy Director General of the "Ukrsil" Association

Editor of the report:

G. Gerasimov, Professor, Consultant of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)

Project Coordinator:

E. Sherstyuk, "Children's Health and Development " Project Coordinator of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Ukraine

Published with UNICEF assistance

ÓUnited Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), 2002

ÓDirectorate Executive of the “Ukrrsil” Association, 2002

INTRODUCTION

Ukraine is one of the major producers of food grade salt in Europe and has a great potential for providing the population, food industry, and export demands with high quality iodized salt.

Most of Ukrainian salt producing enterprises (that are also producing iodized salt) are subordinated to the “Ukrsil” (“Ukrainian Salt”) Association with Executive Board located in Kyiv. Ukrainian salt producing enterprises subordinated to the “Ukrsil” Association are all state-owned. Privatization of these enterprises is prohibited by the Cabinet’s of Ministers of Ukraine Decree of December 31, 1992 N 26-92 “On the List of State Enterprises Property Complexes, Their Main Production Structural Subdivisions Prohibited to Be Assigned to Private Property or Leased’, and by the Law of Ukraine of June 7, 1999 N 847-XIV “On the List of State Right Property Objects Prohibited to Be Assigned to Private Property“. These enterprises are incorporated to the State Food Department of the Ministry of Agricultural Policy of Ukraine. This report also has information about some salt producing enterprises that are not subordinated into the “Ukrsil” and that are leased by the private sector.

While undertaking the iodized salt situation situational analysis (SSA), the capacity of Ukrainian salt industry to produce high quality iodized salt in the framework of implementation of national program for elimination of iodine deficiency disorders (IDD) elimination has been studied. The list of Ukrainian salt producing enterprises is presented in Appendix 1. This list includes addresses, telephones/faxes, E-mails and names of directors/managers of these enterprises. Appendix 2 contains the list of main wholesale companies that are distributing iodized and common salt in Ukraine and the list of salt packaging enterprises supplying iodized and common salt (addresses, telephones/faxes, E-mails and names of directors of these enterprises).

To obtain information for SSA, a questionnaire has been sent to all salt producing enterprises that made it possible to receive information on amount of iodized salt production in Ukraine (in relation to common salt) in the 2000, 2001 and for the first eight months of 2002. Questionnaires also provided data on production capacity of salt enterprises, salt iodization technology, quality control system employed in iodized salt production, packaging and labeling of iodized salt, conditions of its storage and supply.

This report provides with information on volumes of iodized salt supply to some regions of Ukraine, and also for export. It contains information on the progress achieved over the past years in Ukraine to increase production and supply of iodized salt, and also provides with the description of obstacles faced by salt industry while introducing universal salt iodization (USI) for IDD elimination in Ukraine. Finally, it provides with recommendations on possible measures aiming to overcome this problems and increase production of iodized salt.

*Hereafter in this report “common salt” means non-iodized edible salt, in contrast to “iodized salt”, that is, iodine-fortified salt. Edible salt means the salt produced and supplied for human consumption (retail trade and food industry).

INFORMATION ABOUT IODIZED SALT PRODUCING INTERPRISES

1. The State Enterprise “Artemsil” Union

This enterprise is in the state property and according to the Law of Ukraine of July 7 1999 N847-XIV can not be privatized.

Address: 1, Chkalov St., 84545, Soledar, Artemivsk district, Donetsk region,

Tel/fax: (06274) 4-20-00, 4-25-11, (062) 332-26-40

E-mail: Salt @ artyomsalt.com,

Web Page: http: // www.artyomsalt.com

General Director: Sergiy Mykhailovych Pyrin.

3534 employees work at this enterprise, including the management of the enterprise – 5 persons, administration and white-collar workers– 222 persons, engineers, technicians and blue-collar workers – 3307 persons. There is the Salt Marketing Department on the enterprise but there is no specialist who would deal specifically with the iodized salt marketing.

The main consumers of the production (salt) are:

- retail trade..........................................................................................................16 %

- food industry......................................................................................................10 %

- chemical, metallurgical, fuel and energy industries, road service, etc...............70 %

- agriculture ...........................................................................................................4 %

1.1 Production Capacities and Volume of Production (total and iodized salt)

The “Artemsil” Union produces iodized salt and this production is quite successful. Iodized salt is produced in 4 out of 5 salt mines. Technical documentation has been prepared for salt iodization on the fifth salt mine, but the realization of this project has been delayed due to insufficient use of existing capacities for iodized salt production.

The enterprise extracts rock salt by an underground mining on 5 salt mines of Artem rock salt deposit. Extracting of salt is mainly done by machinery (with mining combines), developed by the Ukraine Research and Development Institute of Salt Industry (UkrNDIsiI”), and also by explosion technique (in limited quantity for production of salt lumps for farm animals).

The annual production capacity of this enterprise amounts to 7,480,000 tons (for all salt), while annual production capacity for iodized salt amounts to 467,000 tons, including salt in 1 kg packages – 339,000 tons, salt in 30-50 kg bags – 110,000 tons, salt in 1,000 kg soft containers – 18,000 tons. In 2002 production capacity for iodized salt reached 63 % of the total edible salt production capacity.

Table 1.

Annual production volume of all salt, edible salt and iodized salt at “Artemsil” Union (in thousand tons)

	2000	2001	2002
Annual volume of all salt production (total) I Including for Ukrainian consumers	2008.2 1298	1969.1 1114	870 (*) 398 (*)
Annual volume of edible salt production (for Ukrainian consumers)	316	317	153 (*)
Annual volume of iodized salt production (total) Including for Ukrainian consumers	30.3 12.5	61.2 14.8	41 (*) 13.2 (*)

(*) - production during 6 months

During past years amount of edible salt production for Ukrainian consumers has increased from 24 % in 2000 to 38 % during the first 6 months of 2002. The volume of iodized salt production for Ukrainian consumers has also increased – from 4 % of edible salt production in 2000 to 8.6 % during the first 6 months of 2002.

The volume of salt production for farming animals in Ukraine in 2000 was 25,300 tons, in 2001 – 22,300 tons, and during 6 months in 2002 – 7,200 tons. Iodized salt is not produced for farming animals due to lack of demand. Specialists from the Ministry of Agricultural Policy gave an official statement to the enquiry from the “Ukrsil” Association that another means for iodine supplementation are used to prevent iodine deficiency in farming animals.

1.2. Salt Iodization Technology

Salt iodization at the enterprise is done by adding iodine fortificant (potassium iodate - KIO3) by the wet method. An operator of iodization device in a foreman’s or a laboratory assistant’s presence measures a portion of potassium iodate that is needed for iodized salt production during the shift and dissolves it in water at the proportion of 67 grams of potassium iodate in 0.9 liter of water (warmed up to 40-60 C) per 1 ton of salt. The solution is added to iodization device that provides continuous and homogenous distribution of the fortificant in salt after mixing in a two-shaft mixer. The salt iodization technology has been developed by “UkrNDIsil” Institute and equipment produced on experimental machinery plant in Artemivsk.

In “Artemsil” wet salt iodization is also performed with “Glotra” iodization device with screw mixer that has production capacity of 7 tons iodized salt/hour and with 20 ton/hour iodization machine that were supplied by UNICEF as part of technical assistance in 1997-1999. Continuous salt iodization is performed automatically, with manual addition the iodine fortificant solution to the vessel and by using a flow of salt of the appropriate ground size and grade, feeder, dosing pump, injectors, two-shaft mixer, and control and automation devices.

So far the enterprise has received iodine fortificant (potassium iodate) as part of UNICEF technical assistance from ChiIe. In 2002 for the first time 2,000 kg of potassium iodate of domestic production has been received from the Joint Stock Company “Iodobrom” (located in Saky, Crimean Autonomous Republic) at a price 99,000 Ukrainian Hrivnas (UAH) or $ 18,600 per 1 ton. The stocks of potassium iodate on the enterprise (1,050 kg) are sufficient for 2.5 months production of iodized salt.

During the first half of 2002, the enterprise has produced 41,000 tons of iodized salt. Expenditure of potassium iodate was 2,750 kg. Expenses for purchasing of potassium iodate were 272,300 UAH (the “Artemsil” Union paid 30,000 UAH, the balance was paid by UNICEF). If the iodized salt production remains on the same level, an annual price for potassium iodate procurement will amount to 550,000 UAH or $100,000.

2. Solotvino Salt-Mine

This enterprise is in state property and according to the Law of Ukraine of July 7 1999 N847-XIV is prohibited for privatization.

Address: 90575, Solotvino, Tyachev distr., Zakarpatie region.

Tel/fax: (03134) 2-20-94, 2-10-06, 2-12-32

Director: Viktor Viktorovich Rozha.

1045 employees work at the enterprise including the management of the enterprise – 4 persons, administration and white-collar workers– 36 persons, engineers, technicians and blue-collar workers – 1005 persons. There is the Salt Marketing Department in the enterprise but there is no specialist who would deal specifically with the iodized salt marketing.

The main consumers of the production (salt) are:

- retail trade.........................................................................................................6.4 %

- food industry.....................................................................................................5.1 %

- chemical, metallurgical, fuel and energy industries, road service, etc. ........85.9 %

- agriculture ........................................................................................................2.6 %

2.1 Production Capacities and Volume of Production (total and iodized salt)

The enterprise produces iodized salt on the mine N 8. The enterprise extracts rock salt by underground mining in 2 salt mines of Solotvino rock salt deposit.

Salt extracting is done by machinery method (with salt combines), and also by explosion method (for salt lumps).

The annual production capacity of the enterprise amounts to 1,190,000 tons (for all salt), and annual production capacity for iodized salt amounts to 18,000 tons, including salt in 1 kg packages – 8,000 tons, salt in 30-50 kg bags – 10,000 tons. In 2002 production capacity for iodized salt reached 75% of edible salt production capacity.

Table 2. Annual volume of all salt, edible salt and iodized salt production on the Solotvino Salt mine (thousand tons)

	2000	2001	2002
Annual volume of all salt production Including for Ukrainian consumers	246.5 219.3	194.2 181.3	60.6 (*) 52.8 (*)
Annual volume of edible salt production for Ukrainian consumers	27.3	24.6