Working visit to ‘файне місто’ Ternopil
On 5-6 February 2018, the agricultural counsellor Carolien Spaans and honorary consul Andriy Hrynchuk visited Ternopil region in western Ukraine. It was their first introduction to the region and they took the opportunity to discuss cooperation with the local administration and to visit companies in the area that have a link with the Netherlands. We would like to thank the local administration and the companies for a great introduction to the region. We are expecting to back soon on one of the upcoming events such as the investment forum on 24-25 May 2018.
Meeting local authorities
The introduction to the Ternopil region started with a meeting with the governor and deputy governor of Ternopil region, the mayor of Ternopil and representatives of the agricultural and the investment department. The competive advantage of the region lies in its strategically convenient geographical location and good climate conditions. During the meeting sectors for potential mutual cooperation were discussed, among them bio-energy, foodprocessing, transport & logistics and IT.
Active already in the region are different international partners such as EBRD and EIB. We are looking forward increasing our bilateral cooperation, among others by joining the Investment Forum on May 24-25.
The honorary consul has the western part of Ukraine in his working area, including Ternopil, and explained his role in supporting Dutch business and investment. You can find contact details of our honoray consul, based in Lviv here https://www.netherlandsworldwide.nl/countries/ukraine/about-us/consulate-honorary-of-the-kingdom-of-the-netherlands-in-lviv
Company visit dairy processor Молокія
For those living in Ukraine or do some shopping in the supermarkets in Ukraine when visiting, you might have already noticed it. The dairy processor Molokija is quite keen on marketing that their fresh milk is coming from two farms in the Cherkassy region. One of those farms is being owned by Dutch farmer Kees Huizinga. Kees Huizinga was recently being chosen in the top 5 of most positive foreign influencer of the agricultural sector in Ukraine. Having visited the farm before it was great to see where and how the high-quality milk is being processed.
Molokija gave us an insight in the development of the market and their future plans. Since the market in Ukraine for high quality dairy is not growing at the moment, due to immigration and financial means, more opportunities are seen in export. For this, future expansion is expected. We also discussed the upcoming regulation regarding second class milk and the difference in the dairy sector in Ukraine on the one hand and the Netherlands on the other hand. One obvious difference is the size of the farms, but also the amount of specialization. If you want to know more about the comparison of the dairy chain between the Netherlands and Ukraine, you can download the study https://www.agroberichtenbuitenland.nl/landeninformatie/oekraine/documenten/publicaties/2017/10/31/2017---dairy-comparison-study-nl-ua
For the visit also the Dutch Ukrainian Dairy Centre (DUDC) joined to find options for possibile cooperation. You can read more about DUDC here: https://dudc.info/en
Company visit greenhouse Edem-F Ltd
10 hectares of high tech Dutch technologies and (planting) material is set up in the village Synkiv, halfway between Ternopil and Chernivtsi. To construct the greenhouse, 260 trucks drove up here from the Netherlands. Originally set up to grow also tomatoes, at the moment almost all of the greenhouse is being used for growing tasty pepper varieties from Enza Zaden. Besides peppers, other vegetables include cucumbers and trials will start soon for lettuce. Additionally the greenhouse uses it’s nursery this time of year for growing approx 250.000 tulips from Haakman in 25 varieties. Ukraine is traditionally a country where flowers are being appreciated, but especially on March 8 (Women’s Day) these flowers will find their way to the homes.
The greenhouse recently received Global Gap certification. Although it is at the moment only producing for the local market, after a planned extansion of another 4 ha, the company might start export as well. During the tour we were joined by representative from Enza Zaden Ukraine, Grigoryi Moroz, who shared with us all the specifics of pepper growing, including the biggest risk thrips. The greenhouse is succesfully fighting thrips with the Biological Systems of Koppert.
You can learn more about the greenhouse on the website of the company http://www.dfagro.com/en/
