More than 150 owners and managers of farming and food processing enterprises attended a two-day agricultural forum organised by the EU4Business initiaitive in Zaporizhzhya on November 1-2.
The theme of the event was ‘Strengthening the capacity of farmers in small and medium sector through the development of horticulture and cultivation of new niche crops’. The Forum was organised by the Business Support Centre of Zaporizhzhya under the EU4Business initiative of the European Union with the support of the EBRD.
During two days, participants not only received useful information, but also participated in discussions and conducted B2B meetings. About 30 speakers - specialists in the agro-industrial sector, representatives of international technical assistance programmes, foreign and Ukrainian business associations - came to Zaporizhzhya to address the forum.
The forum addressed issues such as how to give a new impetus to the strengthening and growth of small and medium-sized farms in the Zaporizhye region, how to increase competitiveness and expand exports, and how to improve after-harvesting and increase sales of farming products.
On the first day, the forum considered three main areas:
- an overview of current trends in the world fruit and berry markets, vegetable and niche crops,
- the work of international projects and organisations on the development of the agro-industrial complex in Ukraine and technologies for the cultivation,
- storage and processing of agricultural products.
Export opportunities were the main topic of the discussion on the second day of the forum. The forum ended with B2B negotiations of representatives of SMEs – producers of fruit and berry and vegetable crops – with experts.
The Zaporizhzhya Business Support Centre is part of the EU-funded Network of Business Support Centres, which aims to improve the competitiveness and bankability of Ukrainian SMEs through the provision of business advice and capacity building. It also supports BSOs in 15 regions of Ukraine in setting up a network of EU4Business Business Support Centres (BSCs). At least 30,000 SMEs and entrepreneurs benefit from the project.