At the request of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, in cooperation with the Association of Milk Producers of Ukraine, the international charity foundation SaveUA and the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection, under the coordination of the Embassy of Switzerland in Ukraine, the second phase of the Swiss-funded humanitarian aid project is being implemented.
Switzerland has allocated an additional CHF 2.2 million (about UAH 88.5 million) to support dairy farms in seven regions, namely Dnipro, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, Odesa, and Kherson.
The aim of the project is to ensure food security in general and, in particular, by improving access to quality and safe dairy products produced in Ukraine for the population of Ukraine. In addition, against the backdrop of an acute liquidity problem, short-term support will be provided to preserve the production capacity of the dairy sector in the areas affected by the fighting since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, which were in the disaster zone as a result of the destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam and large-scale mining of agricultural land.
Improving farmers' access to critical inputs should also minimize the risk that poor milking hygiene will lead to poor animal health, triggering a dangerous cycle of disease spread, which will also have a negative impact on food safety. Therefore, the inability of farmers to comply with hygiene standards may have a long-term impact on the possibility of a rapid economic recovery of the industry and, as a result, negatively affect food security, food safety and consumer health.
With the support of Switzerland, dairy producers can receive products for washing and disinfecting milking equipment, pre- and post-milking udder treatment, udder hygiene wipes, gloves, reagents for detecting latent mastitis, disinfectants for livestock premises, etc., which will fully meet the three-month requirement.
It is important that the goods will be purchased directly from Ukrainian suppliers who were active in the market before the war, so as not to disrupt the established relationships with milk production farms and to restore their production practices and technologies in accordance with the requirements of the milking equipment manufacturer.
As a result of the first phase, 296 farms in Chernihiv, Kyiv, Sumy, and Kharkiv oblasts have already received the necessary tools to maintain good hygiene in milk production.
On the way to restoring the capacity of Ukraine's dairy sector, it is important to support production technologies based on high hygiene standards for quality and safe food.
To receive humanitarian assistance, interested dairy producers must fill out the registration form by October 31 and receive a confirmation of their request from the project at the email address they provided.
The registration form is available at the link https://forms.gle/1ZUWVLPpwMMiNYNN7
