This year, Ukrainian organic companies received many awards at Ukrainian and international competitions, they were also added to the book of records of Ukraine and, for the first time, to a rating of Ukrainian organic brands.
At the end of the year, it’s important to recall these star moments and once again congratulate organic producers with their success.
National awards
At the beginning of the year, organic berry pastes made from cranberries and cowberries of TM Liqberry and blanched organic walnuts in caramel from TM Ukr-Walnut won gold at the tasting competition Favorite Food & Drinks.
Favorite Food&Drinks is currently the only independent international tasting competition in Ukraine, it’s conducted by “blind” evaluation of organoleptic characteristics of products and beverages. As Natalia Oleksienko, Head of the External Audit of the Quality Department of Silpo-Food LLC, said in an interview with OrganicInfo.ua earlier, —
“Independent and professional product evaluation at a tasting competition such as Favorite Food & Drinks provides important and objective information for both consumers and retailers. This is a unique opportunity that producers should use to get more attention from the professional community and to communicate with end customers.”
An organic blueberry from TM BigBlue (APC “Yahidky”) became the largest in Ukraine and was added to the Ukrainian National Register of Records. The record-breaking berry of the Chandler variety weighs 9 g and has a diameter of 3.054 cm. The cooperative, founded in 2016 in the Kyiv region, is one of the largest producers of organic blueberries in Europe.
The company closely monitors compliance with organic production technologies. Special attention to protection and power systems, constant control and analysis of production cultures are key components of the company’s success.
Do you know what a sustainable business is? Arnika Agro-Industrial Group knows this for sure, the company won in the Sustainable Business nomination at the Union of Ukrainian Entrepreneurs award.
The company started its activities in the organic direction in 2012 and today has the largest land bank under organic production in Ukraine. In early 2021, Arnika launched a large-scale project measuring the carbon footprint throughout the production chain, and the company plans to achieve 100% climate-neutral production.
International awards
For the first time, Ukrainian tea won an international award! This, of course, is important not only for the organic sector but also for tea producers in general. After all, Ukraine is not considered a “tea” country yet.
The international Tea of the World competition, founded by AVPA (Agricultural Product Evaluation Agency, France), has two nominations: tea that includes one tea variety and herbal teas (including blends and flavored teas).
The special thing about the competition is that it doesn’t evaluate the classic origin of the product but rather its organoleptic qualities, as well as discovers the true value of herbal teas and aims to find new producers from Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia and even Europe. In 2021, 60 products received important awards, including the bronze award of black rosebay willowherb tea TM MOL’FAR (LLC Mol’far Eco).
Rating of organic producers
Ukrainian organic was recognized as promising by BrandStory: for several months this year, they have carefully studied the Ukrainian organic market and come up with several ratings that included the most famous and most successful organic brands. Ratings are created in several categories:
- TOP15 most recognizable organic brands in Ukraine
- TOP5 organic grocery producers
- TOP3 organic dairy producers
- TOP5 organic producers of vegetables and fruits
- TOP4 organic egg producers
In the ranking of the most recognizable organic brands in Ukraine, the first places were taken by Organic Milk LLC, Danube Agrarian LLC and Skvyra Bakery LLC (Skvyryanka TM).
In total, the rankings include 20 Ukrainian organic brands that are already widely recognized by consumers.
And at the end of the year, a separate rating of organic brands “Food for Children” was created, where consumers had the opportunity to vote for their favorite brand. The leaders of the voting and the prize-winners were Organic Expert LLC (Osio TM), Danube Agrarian LLC and the newly created GOBIO brand.
We wish our producers even more achievements in the coming 2022!
Kateryna Shor, OrganicInfo.ua