Since August 2023, farms in Ukraine have been able to obtain certification in accordance with the country's organic farming law. Around 180 farms have already been certified and are listed in the Ukrainian register of organic operators. Additionally, since the beginning of this year, some operators have started labelling their products with the Ukrainian organic logo.

These organic operators are inspected in the future by organic certification bodies and also by representatives of the Ukrainian Consumer Protection Agency (FSA). To ensure that the responsible persons in the FSA oblasts are prepared for their inspection tasks, they will undergo some online- and practical-trainings this year. The first theory training this year was conducted this week. The training was carried out by the project “German-Ukrainian Cooperation in Organic Agriculture (COA)”. The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture of Germany.

200 employees of the FSA followed the online-training, moderated by Oleksandr Kaliberda of the COA-project. After greetings from Oleg Osiyan, first deputy head of FSA in Ukraine, Maryna Kyslytska, head of the organic department of the Ukrainian Ministry of Agro-Policy and Food (MAPF) and Dr. Stefan Dreesmann, head of the German-Ukrainian project, Oksana Motrynchuk from the control body “Control Union Ukraine” started with a lecture about “Standard documents that an organic operator should have”. The lecture was followed by a presentation by Jens Walter, an employee of the competent authority for organic farming in Bavaria/Germany. He presented how contamination can be detected, for example by unauthorised substances in organic farming such as chemical pesticides or unauthorised additives in food.

The third lecture, held by Elisabeth Rüegg, expert of the German-Ukrainian project, dealt in detail with so-called "soft skills" during the inspection. In other words, control techniques that build on as analytical skills, empathy and integrity. The training was finalized by a test with 17 questions for all participants, introduced by Kseniia Guliyeva from the COA-project.

"I am very pleased that this training was carried out so successfully," said Oleksandr Kaliberda, national long-term expert of the project “German-Ukrainian Cooperation in Organic Agriculture”. “This training was another important step in preparing the many FSA representatives for the tasks they have to perform during the inspection of organic farms. Our team is already looking forward to the other training sessions that will follow this year."