As Ukraine continues its advance toward European Union membership, one step in the process is the implementation of EU animal welfare standards. In early April 2025, a delegation of Ukrainian officials accompanied by Julia Hüttl from SAFOSO travelled to the Netherlands for a five-day study visit focused on the practical implementation of EU animal welfare legislation.
The programme provided first-hand insight into how EU legal requirements are transformed into enforceable policy and how official control systems function across the food production chain. Through technical discussions with Dutch experts, combined with field visits, the Ukrainian delegation was able to observe directly how animal welfare requirements are applied on farms, during transport, and in slaughterhouses.
The study visit was supported by the Government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and by Switzerland, under the framework of the Swiss-Ukrainian Programme “Higher Value Added Trade from the Organic and Dairy Sector in Ukraine” (QFTP). The programme is implemented by the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL, Switzerland) in partnership with SAFOSO.
The visit enabled Ukrainian officials to engage directly with Dutch counterparts at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food security and Nature (LVVN) and the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA). From smart poultry housing systems to welfare indicators monitored at slaughter, the visit revealed the tools and risk-based strategies that enable animal welfare controls to be both effective and practical. It also offered a renewed perspective how EU legislation can be implemented in Ukraine while adapting it to national realities.
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