Mission and Studytour Ukraine

Mission to Ukraine

A mission which included a two day workshop on “Establishing agriculture producer organization” and a study tour of the stakeholders involved in the cooperative sector of Ukraine to The Netherlands, were parts of the bilateral project titled “Harmonization of the national system of legislation and development of agricultural servicing co-operatives in Ukraine”.

Project to establish Producer organisations

The objective of the project was to strengthen the relations between governmental bodies of The Netherlands and the New Member States (NMS), the Candidate Countries (CC) of the European Union (EU) and the New Neighbouring Countries (NNC) to the EU. The mission was organized so that The Ukrainian Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food could be assisted in implementing the State Program of Development of Agricultural Servicing Co-operatives by the exchange of experience in the field of agricultural servicing co-operative society and corresponding EU standards.

Workshop

The two day workshop was held in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, in the month of September 2011 which was attended by 12 participants, two consultants, and two interpreters. The workshop aimed at:

1. Providing the participants further insights into the advantages, organisation and functioning of an agricultural producer organisation
2. Helping them to formulate relevant bottlenecks, changes and inputs for the Ukrainian legislation about agricultural producer organisations
3. Providing inputs for an interesting and relevant study tour to the Netherlands as part of this EVD/Q-Point project

The participants of the workshop appreciated the Interactive work, the communication within the group, the way the workshop was organised mainly by identifying the problems in establishing cooperative sector in Ukraine, the professional and active working group, the positive atmosphere and the creative approach to training and bringing people to discussion.

Workshop results

After the workshop the participants had a better understanding of the structure and functioning of the market and member oriented agricultural cooperatives in Western Europe. EU legislation provides financial incentives to producer organizations that can lead to agriculture production for the market. Therefore the focus of the workshop was mainly on the fruit & vegetable sector. The participants were from the governmental background, mainly from the ministry of agricultural production. After the workshop, the ministry of Ukraine expects them to stimulate the producers of fruits and vegetables in Ukraine for establishment of the market & member oriented producer organizations and wherever possible include the new insights into development of policies and initiatives for the Ukrainian government for encouraging such producer organizations.

Possible interest for other projects and assignments

A case related to Ukraine was discussed in the workshop in which an issue of establishing and effective functioning of a producer organization of small, medium & large potato farmers was dealt with in details. Discussions were also held on finding solutions to likely problems in implementing the activities of this farmer-led organization. Government and farmers of various countries can be benefitted by similar workshops for establishing and efficient functioning of the producers ‘organizations.

Studytour to the Netherlands

A studytour of Ukrainian policy makers was organised to get insights into the organisation and functioning of the Dutch agricultural cooperatives. Useful visits and excursions were conducted to meet representatives of mainly vegetable producer groups to learn at location how these market oriented producer groups operate. The evenings were used to exchange the learning points and to translate them into action points for the Ukrainian situation.

 

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