On 23 September 2025, Ukraine celebrated the Organic Day together with the EU countries for the fourth time. It is an important event on the country’s European integration path. On this occasion, the annual conference “Organic Day in Ukraine” was held in Kyiv, which was attended by more than 230 guests both in person and online.
The event was organised by Organic Initiative Public Association under the patronage of the Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture of Ukraine with the support of Switzerland and German government. The event is an example of consistent implementation of the European Green Deal in the organic sector and demonstrates Ukraine’s ambition to integrate into the European common area.
This event is an example of the consistent implementation of the European Green Deal in the organic sector and demonstrates Ukraine’s desire to integrate into the common European space.
The theme of this year’s conference was ‘Domestic Market as a Foundation for the Sustainable Development of the Organic Sector in Ukraine’. The main focus was on the development of the organic domestic market for sustainable development of Ukraine’s agricultural sector as a whole. The most pressing issues of the sector were covered in three sessions:
- State of the organic market in Ukraine and cooperation with the retail,
- Organic products in public procurement —EU success stories and prospects for Ukraine,
- Key aspects of organic market development.
The conference participants were greeted by the representatives of state authorities: Taras Vysotskyi, Deputy Minister of Economy, Environment and Agriculture of Ukraine, and Olga Semenchuk, Deputy Director of the Department — Head of the Food and Feed Safety Division of the Food Safety and Veterinary Medicine Department of the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection, who welcomed the participants and highlighted the importance of supporting organic production by the state and international partners, as well as emphasised the need to stimulate domestic organic production. Luis Carazo Jimenez, Head of the Organic Unit, European Commission (DG AGRI), Igor Kravchenko, Local Programme Manager of the Swiss-Ukrainian Programme “Higher Value Added Trade from the Organic and Dairy Sector in Ukraine” (QFTP), and Oleksandr Kaliberda, National Expert of the German-Ukrainian Cooperation in Organic Agriculture project (COA), joined the welcoming speech.
“Despite all the challenges of today, the organic sector stakeholders continue to work tirelessly, and this delivers results. For example, today there are already two certification bodies operating in Ukraine, which confirms the growing demand and interest of producers. As of the end of 2024, there were 260 operators in Ukraine certified in accordance with the requirements of Ukrainian organic legislation, and 436 — in accordance with EU and/or US organic legislation (NOP). About 350 thousand hectares of agricultural land have organic status, which is approximately 1.2% of the total agricultural land in Ukraine. Our goals are ambitious — first to reach 5%, and then 25% share of organic land in Ukraine, same as it is planned in the EU countries.
I would like to note that we are actively working to bring Ukraine’s organic legislation in line with the new EU regulation.
Draft Law No 13204-1 is being prepared for the second reading and has every chance of being adopted this autumn. Overall, the organic sector shows one of the best indicators of European integration and implementation of the European legislation in the agricultural sector. We are very grateful to the sector stakeholders for keeping up this pace and showing others an example of the ability to quickly adapt to the European standards, specifically, in trade with the EU. This is confirmed by the fact that Ukraine has been consistently among the top 5 organic suppliers to the EU for many years.
I would like to thank our international partners, in particular Switzerland and Germany, for their support of the organic sector. Special thanks to the producers, as they are the backbone of the sector. Only by working together do we achieve great results,” noted Mr Taras Vysotskyi.
During the conference, Sergiy Galashevskyy, General Manager Organic Standard certification body, shared the latest analytics on the state of the domestic organic market in Ukraine. According to the data, the value of Ukrainian organic products sold in 2024 increased by almost 8% compared to 2023 and reached about USD 29 million. Sales volumes reached 7,647 tonnes, which is more than 5% higher than in 2023. The detailed infographics and survey results are available on OrganicInfo.ua information portal.
Dairy products accounted for the largest volume of sales on the domestic market among organic products — 3,033 tonnes in 2024.
Olena Deineko, Chairwoman of the Board, Organic Initiative Public Association, moderated the discussion panel “Challenges and Experience of Partnerships Between Organic Companies and Retailers in Ukraine in Promoting Organic Products”. CEOs and owners of Ukrainian organic companies joined the discussion and shared their experience of entering the country’s major retail chains and provided advice to producers planning to introduce their products on the Ukrainian supermarket shelves. During the discussion, the panelists paid special attention to the importance of proper labelling of organic products with the state logo.
It is also worth noting that this year the Organic Initiative has held a number of events aimed at supporting producers in entering the retail market with the support of Switzerland. In particular, promotional activities were implemented in Silpo and Auchan supermarket chains. These initiatives not only helped to expand opportunities for producers, but also to raise consumer awareness of certified organic products and their proper labelling.
A separate session was devoted to the topic of public procurement of organic products, moderated by Kateryna Shor, Project Manager of the Information Centre “Green Dossier” and Coordinator of OrganicInfo.ua. Kateryna presented the trends and tools for introducing organic products in public procurement in the EU.
Natalia Cholovska, President, Lviv City Public Organization “Ecoterra”, Member of the Board of Organic Initiative PA, presented the Organic Initiative’s project “For Better Access to Local Food” implemented with the support of the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs of France and Nouvelle-Aquitaine region (France) and with the support of Lviv Regional Military Administration. To continue the topic, Liudmyla Honcharenko, Director of Department of Agricultural Development, Lviv Regional State Administration, spoke about cooperation in the region and the first steps and developments that have already been made in this direction.
Considerable attention was paid to examples from other EU countries regarding the experience of introducing organic food in schools. Jérôme Сinel, President of InterBio Association from Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, France, shared practical examples of introduction of organic school meals in France, namely in Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. In his turn, Dr. Stefan Dreesmann, Team Leader of the German-Ukrainian Cooperation in Organic Agriculture project (COA), Germany, spoke about the experience of introducing organic food in German schools. He also shared in detail practical approaches to how the state and organic operators interact on the example of the Federal State of Lower Saxony.
The conference included a separate session dedicated to the Ukraine’s organic sector operation during the war. The participants discussed the main challenges faced by producers and outlined opportunities for further recovery and development of the sector. In particular, they discussed the market’s adaptation to new realities, involvement of veterans in organic enterprises, and prospects for strengthening the sector in the post-war period. Vitaliy Lohov, owner of an organic enterprise (before the full-scale invasion) and veteran, and Mykhailo Bakaliuk, a veteran and Deputy Head of the Directorate for Veteran Policy at Irpin City Council, shared their experience and vision.
Vitaliy Vorontsov, Chairman of Green Agro Solutions Public Association, made a presentation on the importance of the role of organic consultants in organic production.
In addition, during the conference, Olena Deineko and Igor Kravchenko presented the rating “TOP 20 Organic Brands of Ukraine” launched by Organic Initiative with the support of Switzerland in 2025.
The nominees were influential market players whose products have been familiar to consumers for many years.
The conference “Organic Day in Ukraine” in 2025 was organised by Organic Initiative Public Association under the patronage of the Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture of Ukraine with the support of Switzerland within the framework of the Swiss-Ukrainian programme “Higher Value Added Trade from the Organic and Dairy Sectors in Ukraine” (QFTP) implemented by the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL, Switzerland) in partnership with SAFOSO AG (Switzerland) and the German-Ukrainian Cooperation in Ukraine project (COA) funded by the German Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Regional Identity.
Information Center “Green Dossier”, Lviv City Public Organization “Ecoterra”, Organic Federation of Ukraine, and Biodynamic Association of Ukraine became the partners of the event. Media partner: OrganicInfo.ua.
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