Doing business in Ukraine - Best practices - SVZ International BV
In June 2021 Reinoud Nuijten, Agricultural Counsellor together with Anton Dovganyuk, Soft Berries Consultant visited the Ecofruits fields and production facilities in village Losiatyn, near Pochaiv town, Ternopil oblast.
Ecofruits is a partner of SVZ International BV in Ukraine.
The company has more 15 ha under strawberries and actively cooperates with Dutch companies like Fresh Forward BV which variety Rumba is very popular in Ukraine nowadays.
After picking, the berries are pre-cooled and delivered to processing companies or to the fresh market.
Story of SVZ International in Ukraine
Europe has the world’s largest market for fresh fruit and vegetables (F&V) with stable demand overall. It holds 44% of the global trade for F&V and the Netherlands with 7% is the 5th of the global top importing countries.
In June 2014 the Association Agreement and the Agreement on Free Trade between the EU and Ukraine were signed which allowed the UA agricultural products an access to the EU market boosting in the long term the Ukrainian economy.
SVZ International BV is present on Ukrainian berry and fruit market for already few years. It’s known as a reliable partner sourcing different F&V products from Ukraine to European, Asian and other world markets.
First visit of SVZ representatives to Ternopil region of Ukraine took place in September 2017. The area around town of Pochaiv has favourable geographical location, (close to SVZ processing factory in Tomaszow-Lubelskie, Poland), local growers - small family farms can produce sufficient volumes of berry products.
From very beginning SVZ decided to invest in local partners providing them with trainings, knowledge transfer and consultancy to ensure the production of the best varieties, keeping plants healthy, berries save and properly handled, to make sure that the berries delivered to SVZ processing facilities are in the best condition. As a result the strawberry yields almost doubled and plantations of strawberry and raspberry grew substantially giving more income to local families.
In 2019 with support of SVZ a simple but efficient processing line equipped with a pipe chiller was installed near town of Pochaiv. This processing facility prolonged the shelf life of fresh strawberry and raspberry from 2-3 days to 10-15 accordingly giving a possibility for better logistics planning. Also the cold storage and processing facilities where certified with HACCP upgrading the level of quality control and hygiene during the processing.
Due to trainings done by SVZ specialists the local farmers learned a lot about efficient growing technologies and productive varieties, pesticides restrictions, baby food products with zero pesticide residue, hygiene standards, agricultural sustainability etc.
The varieties of the Dutch breeding company Fresh Forward BV were introduced to the project and showed high productivity and good quality of fruits suitable for industry and fresh market.
SVZ and its local partner Ecofruits plan to continue their cooperation further and increase the area under strawberry plantations. As a result more high quality products can be supplied to EU fruit & berry market.
Anton Dovganyuk
Soft Berries Agricultural Consultant
See also video from site visit: https://youtu.be/QKc9pgcJdf0