As part of the Animal Health in Ukraine project, the U.S. Embassy's Agricultural Attaché Magan M. Franchich and USDA Foreign Agricultural Service Agricultural Specialists Oleksandr Tarasevych and Denys Sobolev met in Uman with the heads of the relevant industry associations in the pig, dairy and crop production sectors. They discussed the results and prospects of joint projects, the challenges and opportunities of domestic agricultural producers, their readiness for European integration transformations, and the main obstacles to this.
In particular, Oksana Yurchenko, President of the Association of Ukrainian Pig Breeders, described the state and challenges of pig production in Ukraine in general, and reported on the progress, results and prospects of the project "Preserving Animal Health in Ukraine", which the association is implementing jointly with the US Department of Agriculture starting in 2022.
Dmytro Kokhan, UAC Advisor on Government Relations, presented the Ukrainian Agri Council, its tasks and projects, focusing on legislative initiatives that the organisation implements on behalf of Ukrainian agribusiness.
Anna Lavreniuk, Vice President of the organisation, spoke in detail about the Association of Milk Producers and the prospects for the industry. She also pointed out the challenges faced by dairy farmers since the start of the full-scale war and stressed the need to support them in the current difficult business environment.
Particular attention was paid to the readiness of Ukrainian agriculture to join the EU Single Market: the steps Ukraine is currently taking to meet European requirements and the obstacles that farmers will face in the process of European integration.
The working visit concluded with a farm visit, where USDA representatives could see the organisation of production and talk to producers about their views on the future development of agriculture in Ukraine.
The Association of Ukrainian Pig Breeders is a non-profit, voluntary organisation founded by domestic pork producers. The main goals of the association are to represent and protect the rights and interests of the association's farms, promote the development and implementation of new technologies for efficient pork production, expand sales markets, and protect the domestic market.
