KIEV, May 18 – Ukrainian food industry enterprises need at least five years to bring their products up to EU standards, Deputy State Veterinary and Phytosanitary Service head Vitaliy Bashynsky said.

"According to the experts, we need at least five years for us to evade a direct threat. This direct menace is when we introduce European standards. Some enterprises can't reach that level - they will have to shut, or change the specialty, and the vacuum that will be created on the market will be filled by imports," he said during a conference entitled "Ukraine-EU on the Way to the Joint Future" in Kiev on Thursday.

According to Bashynsky, EU standards in Ukraine are not yet ratified and the enterprises work according to the Ukrainian law.