SAFOSO joins 4th Lviv Taste Fair in Ukraine

Isabel Lechner and Manon Schuppers travelled to Lviv, Ukraine in May to visit the 4^th Lviv Taste Fair. Organized with support of our SECO-funded QFTP project, this Fair offers a unique opportunity for Ukrainian craft cheese producers and organic producers to present their products to local consumers. Since its first edition, this Taste Fair has been a success. Both the number of participating producers and the number of visitors are increasing annually – this year the Fair could not even host all interested producers. Also the quality and diversity of the presented products were very convincing! Several craft cheese producers brought their World Cheese Award-winning products with them, and the organic producers had a wide range of innovative products, including for example bean-to-bar chocolate and herbal teas from the Carpathian mountain region. We started our work for the Ukrainian dairy sector 10 years ago, and we are extremely excited to witness the fast development of the sector over this period.  

This fast development is also reflected in two other recent activities. On 20 May, the EU Integration Committee of the Union of Dairy Enterprises presented the “Roadmap for EU Integration of Ukraine’s Dairy Sector”. Developed with support of our project and with guidance by Prospex International, the Roadmap presents a structured and timebound overview of the necessary steps that must be undertaken to prepare the Ukrainian dairy sector for EU membership and assigns responsibilities for these steps to different stakeholders. The Roadmap was developed through active involvement of all relevant stakeholders and has now been adopted by both the public and private sector as the leading guiding documentfor the sector’s European integration efforts.  

Isabel Lechner and Manon Schuppers also visited the designated National Reference Laboratory for Milk during their visit in Lviv. This Reference Laboratory will be an important pillar to support the monitoring of raw milk quality and safety in Ukraine by establishing reference diagnostic methods, organizing proficiency tests and offering technical support and guidance for routine laboratories across the country. We are looking forward to the collaboration!