Scientific reports on the occurrence of amber in the former counties of Kovel and Sarny, which once belonged to the First and Second Polish Republics, were written by Polish and Russian scholars, but the presence of amber in this region was not widely recognised. It was only the intensive geological surveys launched by the Soviet authorities in 1979 and the commencement of industrial amber mining at the deposits in Kles\u00f3w and D\u0105browica near Sarny by the authorities of independent Ukraine spurred the population of this impoverished region to undertake intensive exploration of the area. Such exploration was illegal from the outset and had no prospect of being legalised, given the establishment in Ukraine of a state monopoly on both the extraction and the purchase and processing of amber. On the other hand, the lack of means of subsistence following the collapse of the Soviet kolkhozes and factories affected over 50% of the population in the amber-rich area, and the prospect of earning substantial income from amber mining prompted thousands of people to engage in this illegalactivities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Natural conditions favoured illegal amber mining:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The exceptionally large grain size of the amber in these deposits proved to be an additional incentive. Over 80% nuggets are suitable for jewellery production, whilst at Sambia and in the Vistula Delta, almost half of the output consists of fine-grained material, suitable at best for pressing. From thousands of excavations and even more numerous pits, the washing process yields not only tens of tonnes of material for large gemstones and sculptural works, but also unique nuggets \u2013 natural specimens of a mass considerably greater than those found on the Sambia and in post-glacial areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most such specimens end up in Poland due to its proximity to the Polish-Ukrainian border on the Bug River and the popularity of Polish amber collectors in Ukraine, who are always ready to purchase valuable natural rarities. Ukrainian customs services are not very interested in preventing the export of amber from their country. At a recent conference in Kyiv <\/span>\u201cThe Ukrainian Amber World\u201d<\/span><\/span> It has been officially reported that not a single batch of amber has been confiscated in recent years, not only at the border with Poland, but also at the even less guarded borders with Belarus, Russia, and Moldova.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a result, amber exhibitions in Polish museums can boast record-breaking pieces of amber (owned or deposited by private collectors): Malbork Castle Museum<\/span><\/a> a body with a mass of 5,960 grams, Historical Museum of the City of Gda\u0144sk<\/span><\/a> weighing 4.540 grams and many others, exceeding the dimensions of the largest specimens in post-Soviet museum collections in Kaliningrad and Palanga, even though those collections were created from the output of large mines over the entire post-war forty years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the museum of the Ukrainian state monopolist, the \u201cAmber of Ukraine\u201d enterprise in Rivne, the largest piece (the only one with a unit mass of over a kilogram) weighs just under 1,200 grams. There are over a hundred such pieces in Polish museum and private collections, a dozen or so in Lithuania, and a few each in Western European countries. The largest ones have reportedly gone to the United Arab Emirates, whose representatives have recently been extremely active in making purchases at any cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All of this is a consequence of archaic business law regulations in a market economy, which are intended to protect the country's interests but in reality lead to the destruction of natural entrepreneurial behaviour. Over the past decade, a strong stream of excellent raw material, tens of tons annually, has been flowing to us, as well as to Lithuania and even to the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia, while at the same time the Ukrainian monopolist's own processing plant is struggling due to a lack of material to process. It has been forbidden to purchase it, and mining output is meagre, as the figures below show:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Extraction in the \u201cUkrainian Amber\u201d mines in kilograms in the years 1993-2006<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The \u201cUkrainian Amber\u201d processing plant in Rivne is equipped with efficient amber processing machinery (mostly from L\u0119bork) and would be capable of tripling production, but the flow of raw material is said to be going abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a side note, it is worth referring to the extraction technology at the only currently active open-cast mine at the Pugach deposit in Klesiv. A large excavator with a powerful 5 m3 bucket operates there, which is rapidly lowered to the bottom of an 8-meter excavation so that it can dig into the amber-bearing layer. One can easily imagine the effects of hitting large pieces of amber. Perhaps this is the reason for the lack of large specimens in the warehouses and the \u201cUkrainian Amber\u201d museum?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The state-owned enterprise \u201cUkrainian Amber\u201d received significant investment subsidies for mining and processing at the start, yet it remains persistently unprofitable and incapable of participating in the global market. Fortunately, the new Ukrainian government is announcing radical economic reforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The phenomenon of amber raw material smuggling into Poland is well-known to both our processors and customs authorities. In 1998, the General Customs Inspectorate conducted a specialist analysis on \u201cAmber \u2013 Grey Zone\u201d. The analysis, developed by Dr. Janusz Marszalec in September 1998, contained the following statements, still relevant today: \u201cThe smuggling practice is characterised by an increasing tendency\u201d and \u201cThe \u2018suitcase-ant\u2019 type of contraband excludes the mafia nature of the practice.\u201d Focusing customs officers' attention on larger batches of amber has begun to yield results. From an initial few dozen kilograms per year (1998) to several hundred in the following years, reaching half a tonne in 2006. In that last year, the largest single seizure of smuggled goods amounted to 100 kg of high-quality raw amber. Our customs officers have also managed to intercept the smuggling of natural amber specimens, including a piece weighing 1.825 g, which was donated by the customs authorities to the Amber Department of the Historical Museum of the City of Gda\u0144sk, and 8 other specimens to the collections of the University of Silesia. The procedure for transferring several more specimens to the Museum of the Earth of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw is underway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the current year, there has been a noticeable reduction in the detectability of raw Ukrainian amber smuggling. However, significant batches of finished amber jewellery stones (up to 100,000 pieces per batch) have appeared, usually made from material clarified in autoclaves. The stones are generally of excellent quality: free of impurities, processing defects, and mostly in standard shapes and calibrated sizes. This proves the establishment of illegal (under current Ukrainian law) processing plants, technically well-equipped and with professional staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Following the planned liberalisation of the Ukrainian economy, these factories could become both our competitors in third markets and good, legitimate partners for Polish jewellery workshops.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A small north-western corner of Ukraine, stretched along the border with Belarus in the wet forest zone of Polesia, is rich in amber deposits that are not very abundant, but very numerous and convenient for exploitation.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":26921,"parent":0,"menu_order":17,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"slim_seo":{"title":"Ukrai\u0144ski strumie\u0144 bursztynu - Amber Portal","description":"The small northwestern corner of Ukraine, stretching along the border with Belarus in the marshy forest zone of Polissya, abounds in not very rich, but very numerous"}},"tags":[239],"lokalizacja":[],"temat":[224],"class_list":["post-13666","bursztyn","type-bursztyn","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-archiwalne","temat-raporty-rynku-bursztynu"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amber.com.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bursztyn\/13666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amber.com.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bursztyn"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amber.com.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bursztyn"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amber.com.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amber.com.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amber.com.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13666"},{"taxonomy":"lokalizacja","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amber.com.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/lokalizacja?post=13666"},{"taxonomy":"temat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amber.com.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/temat?post=13666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Large lumps of amber<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
State economy results<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
rock<\/strong><\/td> \n\u201993 <\/strong>\n<\/td> \n\u201994<\/strong>\n<\/td> \n\u201995<\/strong>\n<\/td> \n\u201996<\/strong>\n<\/td> \n\u201997<\/strong>\n<\/td> \n\u20191998<\/strong>\n<\/td> \n\u201999<\/strong>\n<\/td> \n\u201900<\/strong>\n<\/td> \n\u201901<\/strong>\n<\/td> \n\u201902<\/strong>\n<\/td> \n\u20192003<\/strong>\n<\/td> \n\u20192004<\/strong>\n<\/td> \n\u201905<\/strong>\n<\/td> \n\u201906<\/strong>\n<\/td><\/tr> What do you want to do?
being<\/td>\n920\n<\/td> \n1564\n<\/td> \n1154\n<\/td> \n2457\n<\/td> \n2752\n<\/td> \n2105\n<\/td> \n1288\n<\/td> \n422\n<\/td> \n2450\n<\/td> \n3455\n<\/td> \n1629\n<\/td> \n2644\n<\/td> \n2230\n<\/td> \n2955\n<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n Polish customs barrier<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The author of the analysis points out that, given the high volume of cross-border traffic at Polish-Ukrainian border crossings, detecting small quantities of amber in \u201csuitcase-scale\u201d smuggling is unlikely to yield significant results, and attention should instead be focused on attempts to smuggle larger consignments. He also points out that, apart from the negative fiscal consequences (loss of customs duty 3% and VAT 16%), suitcase imports are in fact desirable, and even necessary for the development of the Polish processing industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n