On 17 December 2025, Donau Soja hosted its Partners and Members Meeting in Ukraine — an evening of strategic exchange, sector insights, and strengthened cooperation. The event gathered over 80 participants from across Ukraine’s soya value chain, including certified producers, processors, certification bodies, experts, and institutional partners.
Held in Kyiv, the meeting served as a moment to reflect on shared achievements, highlight ongoing challenges, and collectively outline the path toward European integration, sustainability, and resilient certification systems.
In her opening speech, Aurélie Tournan, General Manager of Donau Soja Organisation, emphasised that “Ukraine is part of Europe’s agricultural future.” She reaffirmed Donau Soja’s evolution into a European Protein Platform, built on trust, cooperation, and credible sustainability tools that connect local efforts with European policies.
Matthias Krön, President of Donau Soja, highlighted the importance of Ukraine in closing Europe’s protein gap. He underlined the growing number of certified companies and the increasing role of Ukraine’s processors in regional value chains aligned with EU rules.
The results of 2025 and strategic priorities for 2026 were presented by Volodymyr Pugachov, Executive Director and Regional Director Eastern Europe of Donau Soja. He highlighted concrete outcomes from the Protein Partnership Programme, which now covers 25% of Ukraine’s non-GM soya, as well as the expansion of carbon footprint data in key LCA platforms, active support for self-testing on GMO, and the strengthening of certified exports.
Three certification bodies shared practical cases and solutions:
- Asiter Inspection demonstrated operational adaptability, reporting over 1,000 soybean samples analysed in 2025 with only 5% GMO-positive detections, and emphasised flexible audit scheduling, real-time lab capacity, and staff training under crisis conditions.
- Organic Standard presented its decade-long contribution to certifying Donau Soja and Europe Soya operators in Ukraine — now representing more than 60% of national volume. Key achievements included public dashboards, GHG emissions tools, and the Organic Export Club knowledge hub.
- Control Union Certifications Ukraine focused on crisis-responsive certification, introducing risk-based audit planning, remote verification, and regenerative farming standards as scalable solutions under wartime constraints.
The meeting closed with a strong collective message: Ukraine is not only preparing for European markets – it is already delivering measurable impact. With certified systems, verified data, and shared values, Ukraine’s soya sector is ready to lead in climate-resilient, non-GM and traceable production.