Shadow trade accounts for 40% of the domestic market in Ukraine, Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov has said.

While opening a government meeting on Wednesday, he noted that almost 29% of the domestic market in Ukraine was made up of legal entities, 31% of those working under a simplified taxation system, while 40% "of the domestic trade market [is made up of] the organized illegal commodity market."

Azarov said that these trends were leading to the appearance of many substandard products on the domestic market, particularly children's food, toys, and clothes.

He reported a case in Feodosiya on December 6, when Dali Ltd supplied food to kindergartens that did not meet the required quality standards.

"And nobody cared about this case before, neither the city authorities nor the department of education in the region," Azarov said.