Taras Kachka, Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine spoke as panelist within the framework of the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA). Topic of the discussion was “How to better cope with change: New approaches for food system resilience to pandemic and climatic shocks”.
Mr. Kachka vividly presented Ukrainian strategies to ensuring food security under the conditions of climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic. For this, he focused on cereals, sunflower oil and buckwheat, the latter being a local “niche” crop with a high symbolic potential. “As long as buckwheat is on the shelf, everybody is ok”, Mr. Kachka resumed when referring to consumers’ habits.
While the past thirty years were characterized by an area of transformation, for example in regard to agriculture, the next thirty years are to be seen in the light of achieving climate neutrality. In this context, Mr. Kachka appreciated the strategic partnership between Ukraine and the EU. It used to be characterized by technology transfer and exchange of know-how in the agricultural sector, but shifts now to a complementary collaboration with the aim to achieve the goals of the EU agricultural policy. As examples, he named consumption of organic products as well as food security.
According to the Vize Minister, organic products from Ukraine are still mainly export oriented. Thus, the challenge for in the near future is to popularize these foods and to ensure their affordability. He mentioned the president’s wife’s initiative to change nutrition habits and awareness for food quality for example via organic school food as a positive example of state-driven public relation measure for organic agricultural products.
The event was organized by IAMO in cooperation with the German Agribusiness Alliance (GAA) organise a virtual panel discussion. This online event took place on 22 January 2021 from 10:30 to 11:30 am (CET).
13th Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA)
“How to Feed the World in Times of Pandemics and Climate Change?”
18 - 22 January 2021 ǀ Live stream: www.gffa-berlin.de/en
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5B04pI6mkE&feature=emb_rel_pause
