The Project "German-Ukrainian Cooperation in Organic Agriculture (COA)" has recently supported the Round Table on "Support for the organic production in Ukraine: the mechanism of 2021 and new promising areas", which was organized by the Organic Federation of Ukraine in cooperation with the Ministry for Development of Economy, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine (MEDTA) and the Scientific and Methodological Centre for Higher and Further Vocational Education (NMZ) on 13 April 2021 as an online hybrid event.

In this event have participated about 150 representatives from all regions of Ukraine, including producers of organic products, representatives of agricultural departments of the regional state oblast administrations from 23 regions, representatives of NGOs, consultants in the field of organic farming and representatives of international projects.

The aim of this event was to contribute to the development of the organic sector in Ukraine, to provide in details the examples and concrete proposals for the current and future state and regional support of the organic production in Ukraine and to intensify the dialogue between MEDTA and the regional agricultural authorities.

Within the framework of the Round-Table-Discussion on „Support of Organic Production in Ukraine: The Mechanism of 2021 and New Prospective Directions“ the longtime Head of the Department of Organic Agriculture in the North Rhine-Westphalian Ministry of Agriculture, Mr. Wolfgang Neuerburg gave a speech on the "State support for organic agriculture: considerations and lessons from the German and EU-experiences".

The content of the lecture, which was received with great interest by the audience, was an overview of the support of the organic agriculture in the most populous federal state in Germany. His presentation gave a brief overview of the support of:

• education, training, consulting, testing and a network of the leading companies;
• lands, investments and sales as well as
• publicity work, days of action and out-of-home meals.

Summary results of this presentation were:

• the importance of targeted support for the further development of organic agriculture in Ukraine;
• the urgent need for an overall package of the support measures, for example, in the areas of education, training, consulting, research, promotion, public work and legislation (control, labelling).

The speaker emphasized as an essential condition for the successful support: political will plus sufficient financial resources!

The Round Table was the first public event where the national and international experience and ideas for the support of organic agriculture were discussed on such high level by involving all the main players in this sector in Ukraine.