In Ukraine, fresh and processed fruits and berries producers and processors are amongst the most export-reliant areas of the rural economy. However, the on-going Covid-19 pandemic has caused significant disruptions to global supply chains including border closures, economic lockdowns and suspended market promotion activities (such as trade fairs). As a result, Ukrainian fruit and berry producers face tremendous uncertainty related to labor, sales, and domestic and export logistics. This is especially disconcerting as the sector enters the 2020 harvest and marketing season under a constantly changing situation with new restrictions, legislative changes, opening/closure of borders, suspended sector events, etc. occurring almost daily.

This initiative is aimed to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 on the Ukrainian fruit and berry sector by supporting producers and processors through four activity components:

• Live monitoring and consulting on supply chain logistics solutions will enable companies to identify solutions to mitigate logistics-related disruptions to sales and trade;
• Targeted market research will provide companies up-to-date data on global changes in key markets and emerging opportunities to inform near-term business strategies;
• Ukrainian fruits and berries promotion ‘events’ in domestic and global markets will promote available products through innovative on-line and virtual methodologies; and
• Facilitation of on-line B2B market linkages across the industry with potential domestic and international clients will ensure that sales continue to proceed uninterrupted.

We invite companies which specialize on growing and processing berries, stone fruits as well as apples, pears, join to this initiative. It is necessary to fill in the introductory questionnaire. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1RW1bVe1sXAwFSfjeYbiFHWaTC90QhcuW5cZbS0f676k/viewform?edit_requested=true

USAID Competitive Economy Program in Ukraine supports startups, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) aiming to provide support for competitive industries and firms on Ukrainian and international markets, foster a better business enabling environment, and enabling Ukrainian companies to benefit from international trade.

This Initiative became possible due to the support of the American People through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the Competitive Economy Program in Ukraine (via the Ukrainian Berries Association for implementation of the grant activity «VTrade Fruit and Berries »). The Project and its results do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Agency for International Development or the United States Government.