An agricultural policy symposium titled ‘Eastern Europe as key region to contribute to global food security’ will be hosted by IAMO together with the Agribusiness Alliance of the Federation of German Industries' Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations at the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA) which is part of the International Green Week in Berlin. The event on 17 January 2014 will provide a forum for high-level attendees from politics, business and science about development opportunities and risks in agricultural production in Eastern Europe.
Russia and Ukraine possess large potential for increasing agricultural production due to extensive abandoned land resources and comparatively low land productivity. Weather-induced variations in agricultural production and resulting income losses pose risks to farm enterprises and regional price development. Agricultural output as well as trade policies in the two countries considerably affected international grain markets and thus food security in many importing countries for several years. In light of existing potentials for increasing agricultural production and considering the social, economic and ecological challenges, the agricultural policy of this region plays a decisive role for contributing to global food security in a medium and long term perspective.
The opening addresses by Dr. Eckhard Cordes, Chairman of the Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations, and Dr. Robert Kloos, State Secretary in the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, will be followed by a short introduction of IAMO Director Professor Alfons Balmann. Subsequently, Mikola Prisjaschnuk, Minister of Agricultural Policy of the Ukraine, and Aleksandr Petrikov, Deputy Minister for Agriculture of the Russian Federation, will explain strategies and provisions of agricultural politics in their countries. The speakers will discuss together with the audience about development potentials and challenges of increase in agricultural production and improvement of framework conditions in the agricultural sector and rural areas in Russia and Ukraine. The business community will be represented by Dr. Alex Lissitsa, General Director of the Industrial Milk Company in Kiev, Stefan Dürr, President of the EkoNiva Group of Companies, and Dr. Reiner Beste, Head of Division, Health & Nutrition of the Evonik Industries AG. The event will be moderated by Dr. Thomas Kirchberg, Chairman of the Agribusiness Alliance, Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations.
The panel discussion will be held on Friday, 17 January 2014, from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm in hall three of Internationales Congress Centrum (ICC) Berlin. Simultaneous translation will be provided in German, English and Russian. Interested media representatives are invited to register free of charge at presse@iamo.de until 16 January 2014.
In addition, IAMO will present itself on 18 January 2014 from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm in the anteroom to hall two at ICC Berlin with an information stand at the GFFA cooperation market.
Further information
The comprehensive programme of the GFFA panel discussion and information about the cooperation market as well as various events at the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture 2014 are available here: www.gffa-berlin.de
About IAMO
The Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO) analyses economic, social and political processes of change in the agricultural and food sector, and in rural areas. The geographic focus covers the enlarging EU, transition regions of Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe, as well as Central and Eastern Asia. IAMO is making a contribution towards enhancing understanding of institutional, structural and technological changes. Moreover, IAMO is studying the resulting impacts on the agricultural and food sector as well as the living conditions of rural populations. The outcomes of our work are used to derive and analyse strategies and options for enterprises, agricultural markets and politics. Since its foundation in 1994, IAMO has been part of the Leibniz Association, a German community of independent research institutes.
Please note that since the beginning of this year the Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Central and Eastern Europe is renamed Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies. The acronym IAMO is still valid.
Media Contact
Daniela Schimming
Public Relations
Tel.: +49 345 2928-330
Fax: +49 345 2928-499
presse(at)iamo.de
www.iamo.de/en
About Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations
The Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations (OA) is a joint organization of the leading associations representing German business and acts as central point of contact for German companies with interests in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Central Asia, South Caucasus and South-eastern Europe. The OA supports economic policy developments in bilateral relations with those countries and promotes trade, investments and service transfers by German companies in this region. The Agribusiness Working Group of the Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations is the only regional initiative of the German business community to have pooled the international commitment of the German agricultural and food industry since 2001. The OA organizes and hosts the GFFA Berlin.
Media Contact
Andreas Metz
Press and Communication
Tel.:+49 30 206167-120
Fax: +49 30 2028-2441
a.metz(at)bdi.eu
www.ost-ausschuss.de
