Syngenta in Ukraine in partnership with the USAID project Agriculture and Rural Development Support have created the Club of Strategic Partners of the Fruit and Vegetable Market, the first meeting of which was held in Kyiv on May 22.
The initiators of the club announced at the meeting it will unite producers, processors, retailers and restaurateurs in order to stabilize the fruit and vegetable business and fill the Ukrainian market with vegetables and fruits of domestic production, as well as improve product quality and establish a dialogue and interaction between players.
According to Kseniya Sydorkina, the deputy director of the Agriculture and Rural Development Support project, agricultural producers need to adapt the best world practices of agricultural production to remain competitive. New challenges arise for producers and processors, in particular, the introduction of international quality and product safety standards.
“Over the past few years, the needs and preferences of the fruit and vegetable market have changed dramatically. The growth of welfare of the countries in the world creates new consumer preferences for the type, quality, packaging, presentation of agricultural products, which require changing approaches to doing business. Manufacturers, procurers, processors, retail chains need a common platform for an open dialogue and effective partnership. The club of strategic partners is a wonderful initiative,” she noted.
The USAID project Agriculture and Rural Development Support is planned until 2020 and aimed at promoting an integrated and sustainable economic growth through the development of the agricultural sector and the creation of more attractive living conditions in the rural areas of Ukraine.
Syngenta is one of the world leaders in the field of plant protection agents and seed production. The company employs 28,000 people in more than 90 countries.
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) will provide additional assistance in the amount of $125 million for Donbas and adjacent territories that felt the influence of Russian aggression.
“This additional technical assistance will be aimed at ensuring further stabilization and consolidation of Ukrainian communities in the region, increasing the resilience of the local economy and accelerating its development,” reads a report posted on USAID Ukraine’s page on Facebook.
It notes that the announcement on the provision of $125 million will be made during a joint press conference on Tuesday, May 15, by Assistant Administrator of the USAID’s Bureau for Europe and Eurasia Brock Bierman, U.S. Representative for Ukraine Negotiations Kurt Volker and U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch. The press conference will be held in Sloviansk (Donetsk region).
As reported, Volker will arrive in Ukraine on Monday.
“I’m heading to eastern Ukraine next week to see more about the situation on the ground and to learn about the humanitarian crisis in the Donbas,” Volker wrote on Twitter.
U.S. Agency for International Development USAID has provided the Pension Fund of Ukraine with an Oracle server system worth $1 million, which will improve the operational work of the fund. The U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch announced the transfer and purchase of the Oracle system of the unified Oracle SuperCluster M8 system at a press conference in Kyiv on Tuesday, an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent reported.
“I am officially handing over this system,” she said.
After that, Yovanovitch handed the certificate to head of the Pension Fund Board Oleksiy Zarudny.
According to the ambassador, this equipment will allow to optimize and improve the operational work of the Pension Fund of Ukraine.
Yovanovitch noted that the trust in the pension system is the most important in carrying out this reform.
