Organic Certification and Organic Market Development in Ukraine

About

The overall goal of the project is to contribute to the growth of the Ukrainian organic sector and to its integration in the world trade, while alleviating poverty – especially in rural areas – by giving small, medium and large enterprises and other stakeholders of the organic value chain access to the new market opportunities.

The main objectives of the project are to strengthen the Ukrainian organic sector, to facilitate the market integration by reducing trade barriers like access to organic certification; to develop organic value chains through market services and specific support for organic market initiatives and to improve the framework conditions for organic products. Hence Ukrainian consumers will have access to a wider range of certified organic products.

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Organic Certification Services

A Ukrainian locally owned certification agency Organic Standard Ltd. was established in January 2007 within the framework of the Swiss-Ukrainian project "Organic Certification and Market Development in Ukraine" and started inspections in Ukraine as a professional, independent, and reliable certification agency, offering cost-efficient and credible inspection and certification of organic products to farmers, processors, and traders of all sizes. Organic Standard Ltd. receives technical support from FiBL, the Institute for Marketecology IMO and Balkan Biocert .

Activities: Inspection and certification services, training and advisory work focus on quality management, business development for organic producers, processors, traders, institutional building as well as the accreditation of the certification agency Organic Standard. In addition, IMO and Balkan Biocert share their knowledge and train inspectors and certifiers. Since being accredited with ISO 65, Organic Standard offers full inspection and certification services of EU organic Regulation (834/2007, 889/2008). Certification of NOP (National Organic Program), JAS (Japanese Agricultural Standards), and Bio Suisse are done in collaboration with IMO. The strategic partnership with IMO allows clients to get access to both local and international organic markets. Currently Organic Standard Ltd. offers organic inspection and certification for crop production, animal husbandry, beekeeping, wild collection, processing, and trading.

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Organic Market Development

New market services for domestic and export markets are offered through a new organic market development network, including local and international service providers. Specific support is given to organic market initiatives (OMI) to improve market access and to benefit from a premium price.

Activities: Development of the private standard of BIOLan and a business directory for the organic sector in Ukraine. Promotion and awareness raising within Ukraine. Technical and financial support of several selected organic market initiatives.

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Legal Framework and Policy Dialogue

The project supports the elaboration and implementation of a legal framework and policy for the organic sector in Ukraine. Itfacilitates the exchange of experiences in Eastern Europe.

Activities: Round tables with authorities, accreditation bodies and certification bodies in the field of organic agriculture to improve the cooperation between public and private sector. Seminars and trainings on specific topics for authorities and accreditation bodies (e.g. approval and supervision of certification bodies, import requirements). Consultancy services for individual governments on specific topics like subsidies programs.Technical support for working group which works on the draft of Ukrainian organic legislation.

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Technical information

The Swiss Ukrainian project of cooperation and international technical support is funded according to the Agreement between the Ukrainian government and the Swiss Confederation government about technical and financial cooperation of October 13, 1997.

The project is registered under #2039 in July 17, 2007 and accredited Licence #195 in April 25, 2008 by the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine.

Financial support is granted by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO, Switzerland
Beneficiaries: Small, medium and large entreprises, processors and traders working in Ukraine
Project implementation: Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Switzerland
Partners: IMO, Balkan Biocert
Participants: Local Service providers such as e.g. BIOLan Association, international Service providers such as Bioinstitut Olomouc (Czech Republic), actors of the organic movement
Duration of the project 2005–2010.

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The project

The Swiss Ukrainian project of cooperation and international technical support according to the Agreement between Ukrainian government and Swiss Confederation government about technical and financial cooperation from
October 13, 1997.

The project is registered under #2039 in July 17, 2007 and accredited Licence #195 in April 25, 2008 by the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine.

Financial support – State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), Switzerland

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FiBL Project Management:

Tobias Eisenring, Project management
Natalie Prokopchuk, Project coordinator in Ukraine
Monika Schneider, Responsible for Quality Management
Beate Huber, Responsible for Legal Framework
and Policy Dialogue

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