QFTP Sounding Board Meeting: Planning Support for Ukraine’s Organic Sector within the Programme for 2025–2026
On 2 July 2025, the Sounding Board meeting of the Organic Component of the Swiss-Ukrainian Programme “Higher Value Added Trade from the Organic and Dairy Sector in Ukraine” (QFTP) was held.
During the Sounding Board meeting, the needs and ideas for planning activities of the QFTP Organic Component for the period of 1 July 2025 – 30 June 2026 were discussed. The discussions focused on improving the regulatory framework, improving the business environment, supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), developing the domestic market, and export promotion.
The meeting was held offline in Kyiv and brought together representatives of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumer Protection, the Embassy of Switzerland in Ukraine, the state institution “Entrepreneurship and Export Promotion Office”, stakeholders from the organic sector, and QFTP programme team.
Taras Vysotskyi, First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, and Viktor Shutkevych, Assistant Director for Cooperation at the Embassy of Switzerland in Ukraine, also joined the sounding board meeting.
During the event, Taras Vysotskyi expressed his gratitude to Switzerland and QFTP for their significant contribution to the development of Ukraine’s organic sector. In his remarks he emphasised the importance of consistent support for organic producers on both domestic and international markets. Mr Vysotskyi also noted that thanks to QFTP and the involvement of experts, active work is already underway to align Ukraine’s organic legislation with the new EU regulation. He emphasised the Ministry’s readiness to continue working together in shaping an effective regulatory policy for the organic sector and its further adaptation to EU legislation.
In his address, Viktor Shutkevych highlighted the positive development of the organic sector despite ongoing challenges. He underlined the need for sustained support for SMEs in the sector to maintain and strengthen its position. Mr Shutkevych confirmed Switzerland’s continued readiness to support Ukraine’s organic sector and outlined the next steps in this direction.
The meeting was moderated by Igor Kravchenko, Local Programme Manager of QFTP, who facilitated the discussion of ideas for the organic component’s activity plan.
Ideas for future activities were presented during four thematic panels, led by experienced representatives of the organic sector:
- Regulatory Policy and EU Integration — Kateryna Shor, Project Manager at the Information Centre “Green Dossier”
- Domestic Market Development — Olena Deineko, Chairwoman of the Board, Organic Initiative Public Association
- Business Environment and Support for SMEs — Sergiy Galashevskyy, Director of the Organic Standard certification body
- Export promotion — Oleksii Grushetskyi, Deputy Director for Export Promotion of the State Institution “Entrepreneurship and Export Promotion Office”
Tobias Eisenring, Programme Director (FiBL, Switzerland), closed the event by thanking the Swiss Embassy for its support and all stakeholders for their commitment to the organic sector, outlining the next steps of the programme, and reaffirming its flexible and ongoing support throughout the year.
The Swiss-Ukrainian Programme “Higher Value-Added Trade Development from the Organic and Dairy Sector in Ukraine” (QFTP) is funded by Switzerland and implemented by the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL, Switzerland) in partnership with SAFOSO AG (Switzerland).
