The main task of fruit-and-vegetables direction of USAID Economic Resilience Activity (ERA) is the increase in the production and marketing efficiency, and entry into new markets from the local to the international scale for fruit-and-vegetables and meat-and-dairy farms of eastern Ukraine and the Sea of Azov region.
These forms of agriculture are primarily carried out by family farmers and have suffered most of all from disruption of traditional markets by the armed conflict.
We provide comprehensive support, consulting and engineering support from a wide range of professional experts based on a holistic approach.
Among the Activity’s partners in the sector are:
- the Ovochi Stanichnikiv cooperative in Stanitsya Luhanska, which ERA has helped diversify beyond its traditional vegetable market in Luhansk to national supermarket chains and wholesalers
- Sady Donbasu LLC in Kurakhove, which is developing its export potential for apples and sweet cherries to the Gulf states and new markets
- Famberry LLC in Tokmak, the world’s largest commercial orchard of cornel berry, which is ramping up marketing and branding of this unique fruit for the Ukrainian and export markets
Besides consulting and grant support at the level of individual farms and enterprises, ERA supports events such as Local Farmer Festivals in Berdiansk and Mariupol to connect “farmer branded” products directly with consumers.
Main business lines and opportunities you can use for working together with ERA are the following:
- Comprehensive business analysis and determining promising ways of development.
- Improving technological processes of products growing, post-harvesting, storage and processing
- Implementing world standards of production and product quality control – Global GAP & HACCP
- Implementing successful logistics tools and brand development
- Improving existing and creating effective economic and business models
- Promoting and implementing cooperation, developing specialization and clustering
- Providing specialized legal support, consulting and support in fruit-and-vegetables sector
- Developing Digital direction and implementing effective IT solutions for products promotion
- Marketing support and developing fruit-and-vegetables and meat-and-dairy business in local, national and international formats
- Promoting effective trade in local, national and international formats
- Engaging leading specialists in dual education programs
- Grant and/or infrastructure support for promising and justified ideas