The international Green Week in Berlin, Germany, is one of the biggest agricultural trade fairs with 100,000s of visitors all over the world, held during 9 days in January. In addition, Green Week gives current social issues such as climate protection, circular economy, resource conservation and sustainable land use a stage.
The fair is also the venue for the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA) organized by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture. The GFFA is the leading international conference on key issues for the future of the global agriculture and food industry.
The project "German-Ukrainian Cooperation in Organic Agriculture" took part in both events and supported and provided information about organic farming in Ukraine.
One highlight was the event "Sovereign, resilient, sustainable. Global food supply and agricultural production of the future on the Eurasian continent" during the GFFA session (organized by IAMO and German Agribusiness Alliance). Markiyan Dmytrasevych, Deputy Minister of the Ukrainian Ministry of Agrarian policy and Food, Anastasia Bilych, chief marketing officer of the Ukrainian Organic company "Arnika" and Mariya Yaroshko, Leader of the project "German-Ukrainian Agricultural Policy Dialogue" informed the many international participants during the event about the current situation in Ukraine and the situation and resilience of organic farming in Ukraine against the backdrop of Russia's full-scale attack.
Another highlight was participation at the reception of the German Federation of Organic Food Industry (BÖLW) as part of the Green Week with more than 700 representatives from politics, business and associations. The BÖLW is the association of all important organizations and associations in organic farming in Germany. As the leading association of the German organic industry, the BÖLW brings together 15 member associations - the entire value chain of the German organic food industry under one roof. From agriculture to processing to trading. At the invitation of the “German-Ukrainian Cooperation in Organic Agriculture” project, Anastasia Bilych attended this reception together with Dr. Stefan Dreesmann and Oleksandr Kaliberda from the COA project. The evening could be used to provide information about the situation of organic farming in Ukraine in many discussions with representatives, for example from the European Parliament or German agriculture ministers, and to make many new contacts.
The stay was rounded off with a long tour of the trade fair and its over 20 huge exhibition halls. This included exhibition hall 22, in which only organic products were presented and about the new advertising campaign "Organic - yes, logo!" (“Bio? Na Logo!”) from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture.
“We are very satisfied with the intensive time at the Green Week and the international conference of the GFFA,” said COA project leader Dr. Stefan Dreesmann, "where Anastasia Bilych and our project were able to very successfully provide information about organic farming in Ukraine and make new contacts for the further development of this particularly sustainable form of agriculture in Ukraine."
