On November 6, 2019, with the participation of Inna Mietielieva, the Deputy Minister of the Ministry for Development of Economy, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine (hereinafter referred to as the MDETAU), took place a kick-off meeting and Sounding board of the Swiss-Ukrainian Program “Higher Value Added Trade from the Organic and Dairy Sector in Ukraine”.
«The key priority of the state policy in agriculture, particularly in organic and dairy production is the development of production and trade with high added-value. Therefore, the Government and the MDETAU are ready to support programs with a focus on creating added value, on processing, on new opportunities in the context of food safety and quality. This set of tasks is the basis for GDP growth, employment increase, and improvement of food quality and life of Ukrainians”, – noted Inna Mietielieva, the Deputy Minister.
The participants of the event were Tobias Eisenring, Program Director (FiBL), Manon Schuppers, Director of Safoso AG (Safoso, Switzerland), Viktor Shutkevych, Assistant Director of the Swiss Cooperation Office in Ukraine, the Embassy of Switzerland, Igor Kravchenko, Local Program Manager, Olga Shevchenko, Acting Head, State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumers Protection, representatives of the MDETAU, industry associations, experts and producers of organic and dairy sectors.
«The strategic goal of the Program is to develop the capacity of the organic and dairy sectors as strengthening sustainable development. We are ready to share our experience and actively cooperate with the Ukrainian side to ensure long-term impact and opportunities for effective development of Ukrainian sectors after the end of the Program”, – noted Tobias Eisenring, Program Director.
According to Assistant Director of the Swiss Cooperation Office in Ukraine, the Embassy of Switzerland, Viktor Shutkevych, the work of the Program will be aimed at the development of small and medium enterprises, to increase their competitiveness and trade with higher added value.
Presenting the Program and the goal of uniting the organic and dairy sectors within one Program, Igor Kravchenko, Local Program Manager, presented the common components and tasks for both directions. In particular, it was about the economic component, as well as the emotional one, which is based on the common principles of health, ecology, fairness, and care.
Besides, parallel sessions were held at the event to present the results of the evaluation of the organic and dairy sectors and discuss proposals for areas of intervention.
