The forced resettlement of millions of Ukrainians, the losses and suffering caused by Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022, the destruction of infrastructure, the damage to agricultural production and supply chains, the destruction of crops, pose a serious threat to the food security of the Ukrainian population. The complexity of storing and exporting grains in 2022 extends this threat to the global level.

Internally displaced persons, who lost their housing, means of living, and sometimes relatives and close people, found shelter in the west of Ukraine and abroad. At the same time, a significant number of people from all over Ukraine have lost their jobs and are very limited in the means of supporting their families. War also has a negative impact on people with disabilities, single people, and the elderly. These are the most socially vulnerable categories of the population that need help with food. 

The Lviv Agrarian Chamber is working on finding international partners to solve these problems, in particular, establishing contacts for the sale of agricultural products produced by small and medium-sized farms in Ukraine. This will make it possible to collect and sell the products of the 2022 harvest and start the new sowing of 2023.

In this context, the Lviv Agrarian Chamber is planning the implementation of a new social project “Mir” – Bread of peace”. The goal of the project is to promote the mutual development of trade, economic cooperation and humanitarian assistance to internally displaced persons in Ukraine and migrants in the EU affected by the conflict.

Pausa Café Social Cooperative (Italy) will act as a partner in the implementation of this project. 

Cooperation will take place through the involvement of agricultural producers of Lviv Oblast, in the supply of grain crops (wheat of 2-3 classes and rye of 1-2 classes) for baking at the production facilities of the Pausa Café cooperative bread according to the ancient Italian recipe, without the use of yeast. The bread will be sold in retail chains in Italy under the name “Bread of Peace”. The cooperative will transfer part of the proceeds from the sale of this bread to help the most socially vulnerable sections of Ukrainian society and to support small farms.

Today, July 29, 2022, the first meeting of partners of the new project took place. The social cooperative Pausa Café (Italy) was represented by Marco Ferrero, President of Pausa Café and Stefano Riverdito, Advisor to the President of Pausa Café. On the Ukrainian side, the meeting was attended by Pavlo Muzyka, president of the Lviv Agrarian Chamber, Ihor Vuytsyk, head of the Chamber and Anna Kushchak, deputy head of the Chamber.

The meeting was attended by Volodymyr Pihotskyi, head of the Lviv territorial administration of the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine, Svitlana Semchyshyn, a representative of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine’s human rights representative, Tetyana Hetman, director of the department of agro-industrial development of the Lviv OVA, Ihor Lesyshak, head of FG “LIM” and Vasyl Gerus, head of agriculture. 

The participants of the meeting noted the importance of such a project for all its participants and highlighted the informational, security, socialization and economic components that will be implemented during its implementation, namely:

• ⦁ dissemination of true information about the war in Ukraine in Italy, which is extremely relevant in the context of Russia’s aggressive and lying information policy in the European Union;
• ⦁ ensuring food security through the possibility of guaranteed sale of food grain by small and medium-sized farmers of the Lviv region, receiving funds for further production;
• ⦁ socialization of persons serving a sentence through labor for social good;
• ⦁ stimulation of producers of organic farming products, creation of joint enterprises, introduction of advanced practices in agriculture;

At the end of the meeting, the Lviv Agrarian Chamber and the Pausa Café Social Cooperative (Italy) signed a Memorandum of Partnership in preparation for the implementation of the social project “Peace – Bread of Peace”. 

In the future, phased planning and implementation of project tasks are planned.

          Ihor VUITSIK,
 Chairman of the Lviv Agrarian Chamber