On 23 September 2024, Ukraine celebrated the Organic Day for the third time together with the EU at the conference “Organic Day in Ukraine” which brought together more than 250 representatives of the Ukrainian organic sector in a hybrid format.
The topics of the event were: analytics of the current state of the organic market, trends in the organic market development during the war, introduction of the national organic labelling in Ukraine, and the experience of introducing labelling in other countries. The organizers shared the results of the organic market study in Ukraine (domestic market and exports, 2023-2024). In addition, TOP-10 organic brands of 2024 were presented.
Vitaliy Koval, the Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, greeted the organic sector representatives on the Organic Day and expressed his wish that the organic sector of Ukraine, which is currently the TOP 5 supplier of organic products in the EU, become the No 1 supplier. The Minister stressed that there are all the prerequisites for this, and above all, significant land areas, as well desire and experience of market players.
The next important task for the sector is to develop deep processing of organic products and export value-added products.
In his speech, the Minister also paid great attention to the development of the domestic market for organic products, which has declined significantly in recent years in terms of money and number of consumers.
Minister Vitaliy Koval urged the participants of the organic event to use all possible means to attract 7 million Ukrainians who have left Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale invasion and about 40 million people living in different countries of the world who consider themselves Ukrainians to consume products from Ukraine. The idea, which the Minister called for to be actively developed, is to promote the formation of a culture of consumption of Ukrainians abroad in line with the slogan “Buy Ukrainian!”.
Taras Vysotskyi, First Deputy Minister, in his welcome words, particularly noted that in the context of the decision to open the EU accession negotiations with Ukraine, the organic sector is the one that can help us successfully integrate into the EU as soon as possible. Because the EU pays a lot of attention to the organic sector. It plays an important role in system documents such as the European Green Deal, the Biodiversity Strategy, and the Farm to Fork Strategy. All of these documents assign an important strategic role to the organic sector and set a very ambitious target of reaching 25% of organic land of the EU’s total agricultural land. Similarly, Ukraine also assigns an important role to the organic market in its European integration programme documents. The Food Security Strategy until 2027 has already been adopted, which clearly states the role and importance of the organic sector. The Strategy for the Development of Agriculture and Rural Areas in Ukraine until 2030 is currently being approved, where the organic sector is also given an important role.
Maryna Kyslytska, Head of the State Policy Division on Organic Production at the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, gave the presentation “Prospects of the Domestic Organic Market in the Process of the EU Integration. The Importance of National Organic Labelling”.
The participants were welcomed by Elena Panichi, Head of the Organic Unit, Directorate Quality, Research & Innovation, Outreach, Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development, European Commission, and Christian Hell, Agriculture Sector Manager, Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine.
Andrii Remizov, Director of the State Institution “Entrepreneurship and Export Promotion Office” (EEPO), and Olha Semenchuk, Deputy Director of Department – Head of Directorate for Food and Feed Satefy, Department of Food Safety and Veterinary Medicine of the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumer Protection, also welcomed the participants of the event.
Viktor Shutkevych, Assistant Director of Cooperation at the Embassy of Switzerland in Ukraine, revealed the details of Swiss support for Ukraine’s organic sector and announced new cooperation programmes, including the Women’s Entrepreneurship in the Organic Sector (WEOS) project, which will provide grants for organic producers with a focus on higher added value and support for women in the organic sector.
Oleksandr Kaliberda, National Expert at the German-Ukrainian Cooperation in Organic Agriculture project (COA), which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, spoke about the significant contribution of the COA project to supporting the organic sector in Ukraine and announced grant support for organic operators in 2024 and 2025.
Examples of successful international experience in supporting the introduction of national organic labelling in European countries, i.e., Germany, Switzerland and France, were presented by Dr. Stefan Dreesmann, Team Leader, German-Ukrainian Cooperation in Organic Agriculture project (COA), Tobias Eisenring, Program Director of the Swiss-Ukrainian Program “Higher Value Added Trade from the Organic and Dairy Sector in Ukraine” (QFTP), Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL, Switzerland), and Laure Verdeau, Director at Agence BIO, Agency for the Development and Promotion of Organic Agriculture, France.
The results of the organic market study in Ukraine (domestic market and exports, 2023-2024) and the TOP-10 organic brands of 2024 were presented at the conference by the experts of Organic Standard LLC — Sergiy Galashevskyy, General Manager, and Olena Manziuk, Deputy Head of the Certification, Standardisation and Quality Department. In addition, Kateryna Shor, Project Manager of the Information Center “Green Dossier” and OrganicInfo.ua Coordinator, presented the results of the consumer survey “Awareness and Perception of Organic Products in Ukraine”, which was conducted in March-May 2024.
Olena Deineko, Chairman of the Board at Organic Initiative Public Association, spoke about the support for attracting grants for organic operators and announced new support programmes.
The panel “Education and Science in the Organic Sector of Ukraine: Current Status, Challenges and Plans”, moderated by Eugene Milovanov, Chairman of the Board at the Organic Federation of Ukraine, was attended by the representatives of organic organisations: Yevgeniia Yushchenko, President of Biodynamic Association of Ukraine, and Olena Korogod, President of Organic Ukraine NGO. Svitlana Roik, Chief Specialist in Public Relations, International Cooperation, Investment and Project Management of Pryvilne Territorial Community, presented an example of the introduction of organic education in the school curriculum and cooperation between organic businesses and educational institutions in Rivne region to improve the quality of knowledge about organic production.
The event ended with the solemn presentation of awards for significant contribution to the organic sector development in Ukraine to its representatives and partners from the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, which was held by Andriy Pyvovarov, Director of the Department of State Policy in the Field of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures.
As the conference is attended by a large number of stakeholders, the Organic Day in Ukraine is intended to contribute to raising awareness of organic products among consumers in Ukraine, promoting organic production practices and consolidating the organic sector in Ukraine
Organisers and partners
The conference is organised by the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine and Organic Initiative Public Association in partnership with Ekoterra Lviv city non-governmental organisation, Information Center “Green Dossier”, Organic Ukraine NGO, Organic Federation of Ukraine and Biodynamic Association of Ukraine,
with support of Switzerland in the frame of the Swiss-Ukrainian program “Higher Value Added Trade from the Organic and Dairy Sector in Ukraine”, implemented by the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL, Switzerland) in partnership with SAFOSO AG (Switzerland) (QFTP),
and Germany in the frame of the German-Ukrainian Cooperation in Ukraine project (COA), which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture.
Information partner: OrganicInfo.ua
More information:
See the program at the link.
Presentations: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/19mCOZaSKOWlzkS-SfTjNvXgP2vI6_ABt?usp=sharing
Photos: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1KTFpuWsAMy2ztqazX96hhTonTmAj_BXW?usp=sharing
Video: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1INDxVU-NkTGm_SIPxGBFpWki_bNnDG0-?usp=sharing
