Successfully completed the second practical training for the State Consumer Service of Ukraine on control in organic agriculture
Ukraine — the next step: successfully completed the second practical training for the State Consumer Service of Ukraine on control in organic agriculture. Since August last year, Ukrainian agro-producers and processors have the opportunity to pass organic certification according to the law of Ukraine on organic agriculture. An important role in controlling these organic enterprises is played by the regional administration of the State Service of Ukraine for food safety and consumer protection (State Consumer Service). In order to support representatives of consumer rights protection authorities in fulfilling this task, the project «German-Ukrainian Cooperation in the Field of Organic Agriculture» (COA) held the second several-day practical training on organic farming enterprises in the first week of July. The COA project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture of Germany. For security reasons, this time the training was held in the Republic of Moldova. Representatives of the State Consumer Service from 13 regions from all over Ukraine came here to participate in the event and Anna Yermak from the central office of the State Consumers Service in m. Kyiv The training was also attended by Marina Ilushka from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry of the Republic of Moldova and Tatiana Golban from the Moldovan National Food Safety Agency. The Republic of Moldova also has its own law on organic agriculture, for which these Moldovan state institutions are responsible. Taught the group Ksenia Guliyeva Oksana Motrinchuk, Elizabeth Ruegg and Dr. Stefan Dreesmann. All of these trainers have many years of experience in certification and control in organic agriculture. Organic agricultural enterprise, organic mill and large organic grain trader were selected for practical training in Moldova. Practical control was introduced and worked out at these facilities. Additionally, various aspects of control in organic agriculture have been covered in more profoundly in theoretical plan. «I am very happy that this second training was also successful,» said Dr. Stefan Dreesmann, head of the project «German-Ukrainian cooperation in the field of organic agriculture». «We have a few extremely busy days behind us, during which we have received a better understanding of what to pay attention to during the organic inspection of Ukrainian competent authorities. I would like to thank all participants of this training: three Moldovan organic farms, the organic agriculture association MOVCA from Moldova, which supported us in many organizational issues, the experienced team of trainers, translators and especially participants from the regional departments of the State Consumer Service of Ukraine, who by their active participation once again contributed to the successful conduct on the day of this training,» — continued Dr. Dreesmann. «And I am also very pleased that the two officials of the Moldovan state authorities responsible for organic agriculture accompanied the training throughout the time and that there was an intensive exchange of ideas between Ukrainian and Moldovan officials and the project,» Dr. Dreesmann added. At the end of autumn, a third training course is planned for the representatives of the State Consumer Service of Ukraine, during which the acquired expert knowledge will be further deepened.
