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Since August last year, Ukrainian farmers and processors have been able to obtain certification under the Ukrainian law on organic farming. The food safety authorities of the Ukrainian oblasts play an important role in the control of these organic farms.

In order to support the representatives of the FSA in this task, they have been trained in this task since last year through various training courses by the "German-Ukrainian Cooperation in Organic Farming (COA)" project. The project is financed by the German Ministry of Food and Agriculture.

The next training took place last week, this time directly in Ukraine, in the Transcarpathian Oblast. For the first time during these trainings, the participants of the Ukrainian Food Safety Agency independently took on the task of inspecting organic farms that are certified under the Ukrainian law on organic farming. To this end, the inspection required by Ukrainian law was simulated for some parts of the farm on real Ukrainian organic farms. The simulated control was then evaluated by all participants and the trainers together.

The training took place on two organic farms in Transcarpathia that grow blueberries and collect herbs and process them into teas. The group also got an insight into an organic farm that specializes in the production of mushrooms.

The same representatives from 13 oblasts from all over Ukraine and Anna Yermak from the FSA headquarters in Kyiv came to the training as for the previous trainings. According to the "train-the-trainer" principle, the Ukrainian participants then pass on the knowledge they have learned to their colleagues in their oblasts.
The group was again trained by Ksenia Guliyeva, Oksana Motrynchuk, Elisabeth Rüegg and Dr. Stefan Dreesmann. All of these trainers have many years of experience in certification and control in organic farming.

"I am very pleased that the first simulation of a control of organic farms as part of this training was implemented so well by the 14 participants from the Ukrainian Food Safety Agency. This knowledge can be built upon in the next training next year," said Dr. Stefan Dreesmann, head of the "German-Ukrainian Cooperation in Organic Farming" project. "I would like to thank all participants in this training: the participants from the Ukrainian Food Safety Agency for their great engagement in every respect, the three Ukrainian organic farms for their great openness and trust, the experienced team of trainers, the entire COA project team and the two translators," continued Dr. Dreesmann.

The fourth training course for the representatives of the Ukrainian FSA is planned for next year, in which the participants will again simulate organic controls in order to further strengthen their specialist knowledge.

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