On Tuesday, March 25th, the Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture (ZM) Normunds Šmits met with Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Economy Taras Kachka and Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Denys Bashlyk to discuss economic and institutional cooperation between the two countries.
The meeting focused on trade between Latvia and Ukraine in forestry, agriculture, and food products, addressing challenges in trade and exploring possible solutions.
Normunds Šmits stated: “I am pleased that we have reached an agreement on further mutually beneficial cooperation in forestry. The Latvian company, joint-stock company “Latvia’s State forests” will assist Ukraine in implementing the geospatial information solution ‘LVM GEO,’ developed in Latvia. Another valuable agreement for both countries is the supply of tree seedlings to Ukraine.”
The officials agreed to strengthen bilateral consultations on mutually beneficial trade in agricultural and food products, including raw materials from Ukraine needed for agricultural production. They also discussed enhancing cooperation between Latvian food producers and Ukrainian distribution networks to increase Latvian food export to Ukraine. Additionally, Ukraine expressed its willingness to make greater use of Latvian ports for exporting Ukrainian products to other EU countries.
On Wednesday, March 26th, the Latvian-Ukrainian Intergovernmental Commission on Economic, Industrial, Scientific, and Technical Cooperation held a meeting, where ZM Parliamentary Secretary Normunds Šmits reaffirmed Latvia’s commitment to continuing mutually beneficial cooperation with Ukraine in areas under the ministry’s jurisdiction.