To ensure food security in Ukraine and improve access to safe dairy products of good quality, Switzerland has been providing humanitarian assistance to milk producers in the most affected regions for three years in a row.
As of January 2024, 355 dairy farms were recipients of the Swiss humanitarian project, namely in Dnipro (26), Donetsk (6), Zaporizhzhia (2), Kyiv (78), Luhansk (0), Mykolaiv (12), Odesa (11), Sumy (59), Kharkiv (64), Kherson (2) and Chernihiv (95). The total number of cattle kept in the recipient farms is over 350,000, including over 130,000 cows. A list of all recipient farms is available here.
Milk producers received products for washing and disinfecting milking equipment, pre- and post-milking udder treatment, udder hygiene wipes, gloves, reagents for detecting subclinical mastitis, disinfectants for livestock premises, etc., which will fully meet the three-month need. This short-term support is expected to not only improve farmers’ access to critical inputs, but also to promote hygiene standards in primary milk production. Good milking hygiene ensures the health and welfare of animals and has a direct impact on the safety of dairy products and, consequently, the health of consumers.
The Swiss-Ukrainian program “Higher Value Added Trade Development in the Organic and Dairy Sectors of Ukraine” (QFTP) has consistently supported and promoted the expansion of such humanitarian initiatives to provide hygiene products for dairy farms through special support under the Emergency Response Program Fund. For example, in the first phase of the program, which ended on June 30, 2023, QFTP supported the provision of free access to veterinary and laboratory services for 167 small and medium-sized milk producers.
In the second phase, QFTP continues to support dairy service providers in implementing activities that will contribute to the recovery of farms in the war-affected and de-occupied areas.
The selection of these service providers was based on the results of a call for applications, which was won by four organizations: Veterinary Service Center PE, Dairy Management Systems LLC, Consulting Center AVM 2 PE and Uman Laboratories LLC. It is expected that the provision of consulting, laboratory and veterinary services by the selected service providers will help more than 100 milk producers recover from the damage and losses caused by the war.
Please note that farms that have not yet received humanitarian aid from Switzerland during the entire project period can apply for such assistance. Target regions: Dnipro, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson, and Chernihiv regions. Only dairy farms in the Kharkiv region can submit requests repeatedly. The registration form is available here.
To receive humanitarian aid, interested milk producers must fill out the registration form by February 19 and receive a confirmation of their request from the project at the email address they provided.
An important condition for participation in the project is the state registration of cow milk production holdings in accordance with the food safety law. Requests from applicants who do not carry out economic activities in the temporarily occupied territories, the territory of the Russian Federation or the Republic of Belarus and are not subject to sanctions under Ukrainian law will be considered.
The second phase of the Swiss-funded humanitarian aid project will last until May 31, 2024.
We remind you that the humanitarian project is being implemented at the request of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine in cooperation with the Association of Milk Producers of Ukraine, the international charitable foundation #SaveUA, and the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection in coordination with the Embassy of Switzerland in Ukraine.
