Online networking project “Ukrainian Organic Export Days 2021”

The Ukrainian Organic Export Days 2021 will be held online from 20 September until 1 October 2021. The sectoral export B2B project is addressed to Ukrainian producers of organic food and feed products and will help exporters to increase sales and/or open new foreign markets, find new export opportunities, partnerships and receive relevant knowledge on the export activities. The project aims to present the potential of Ukraine's organic export market to the international community and establish cooperation between Ukrainian organic producers and potential partners abroad.

Key objectives of the Ukrainian Organic Export Days:

• internationalisation support
• increasing Ukraine's export brand awareness
• strengthening the exporters B2B negotiation skills.

Programme with individual online B2B meetings

The programme includes an official opening with Dmytro Senik, Deputy Foreign Minister, Chief Digital Transformation Officer, Viktor Shutkevych, Embassy of Switzerland in Ukraine, Assistant Head of International Cooperation, Andrii Lytvyn, Acting Director, SI "Entrepreneurship and Export Promotion Office", and Serhiy Galashevsky, Director of the Organic Standard LLC, who will present the potential of Ukraine in the field of organic food/feed production and agricultural products, as well as trends in the Ukrainian organic market, to the international community. Further, individual online B2B meetings between foreign partners and 31 participating Ukrainian producers of organic fresh and frozen berries, fruits, grains and legumes, sauces, jams, snacks, oils, etc., will be held daily.

Ukraine already exports organic products to 35 countries and has competitive advantages to expand both the geography and assortment of export production. Despite the decline of the world economy and the reduction of consumer spending due to quarantine restrictions by 2020, the demand for organic food in Ukraine and worldwide has grown tremendously. A forum for non-organic producers who will switch on organic production will be held on September 30.

“Today, Ukraine takes 4th place among suppliers of organic products to the EU countries, but we are confident that it is not the limit for our country. That is why we believe that this project is an excellent opportunity for organic producers to improve their position in international markets. In addition, this project will be interesting for those companies that are just thinking about organic certification," said Irina Kukhtina, President of the Ukrainian Berries Association.

Background

The project is implemented by the State Institution “Entrepreneurship and Export Promotion Office of Ukraine” and the Ukrainian Berries Association. The online event was made possible through the support of Switzerland within the framework 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) and The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) through thе USAID Competitive Economy Program in Ukraine (CEP) and thе USAID’s Agriculture Growing Rural Opportunities Activity (AGRO) implemented by Chemonics International.

Registrations are open for interested parties. For more information please visit the Project website.