The Austrian Development Agency (ADA) – the operational unit of Austrian Development Cooperation – and the organization Donau Soja will continue their long-standing strategic partnership until 2029. Over the next five years, the two organizations will invest a total of EUR 11 million in the private sector in Eastern and South Eastern Europe in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova and Ukraine. The partnership aims to increase the cultivation of sustainable, traceable, European and GMO-free protein crops such as soy. At the same time, agriculture in the four countries is to be made more friendly to the environment and protect the climate.
In contrast to the 2017-2024 period of the first strategic partnership between the two organizations, the focus in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova and Ukraine is no longer exclusively on the cultivation, marketing and sale of soy and soy products. ADA and Donau Soja now want to extend their initiative to corn, wheat, beans and other crops. The focus is on increasing economic efficiency, preserving the environment, developing digital agriculture and fighting poverty, as well as improving market opportunities for agricultural products from the four project countries in Western Europe.
“Farmers in the project countries and food production in the EU will also benefit from the new partnership, thanks to the systemic approach of building sustainable value chains. Our strategic partnership thus makes a valuable contribution both to poverty reduction in the project countries and to climate and environmental protection,” said Susanne Fromwald, secretary general of Donau Soja.
Massive increase in soy cultivation areas in project countries
The first strategic partnership between ADA and Donau Soja improved GMO-free, sustainable and deforestation-free soy cultivation in the four project countries. The overall objective was to increase the area under cultivation, sustainably increase yields and develop soy and soy products for the Western European market from field to fork. The first partnership resulted in 2.3 million tonnes of sustainably produced soybeans on more than one million hectares of arable land. More than 14,000 farmers and 160 processing companies have benefited. European food chains have supported the production and processing of soy through numerous protein partnerships. Since 2017, the area under soy cultivation has increased by 18% in Serbia, 40% in Bosnia and Herzegovina and 34% in Ukraine. Donau Soja and ADA have invested a total of EUR 9 million in the program.
"Donau Soja assists farmers and producers in Ukraine in enhancing the quality of soybeans, elevating them from basic commodity standards to meet higher criteria. By establishing a level playing field in Europe, approximately 20% of Ukrainian soybeans now adhere to EU production rules and regulations. This represents a significant milestone and serves as a tangible demonstration of the viable EU membership pathway for Ukrainian agriculture," said Sergiy Galashevskyy, general manager of the Ukrainian certification body Organic Standard.
Knowledge transfer, networking and local activities
Since 2017, Donau Soja and the Austrian Development Agency have been working with numerous partners to promote and expand sustainable soy farming in the EU's neighborhood. They have worked intensively with ministries, universities, research institutes, inspection bodies, seed companies, farmers' associations and food safety agencies.
The five years of the second partnership, from 2024 to 2029, will focus on climate, environmental, soil and water protection, biodiversity and poverty reduction in the project countries. In particular, the partnership will support knowledge transfer in the use of digital agriculture, access to finance and the implementation of new EU legislation, from the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) to the new reporting requirements of the Green Deal.
