On 10 May, a roundtable discussion on "Geographical Indications and Enogastronomic Tourism as Tools for Rural Development" was held in the small hall of the Transcarpathian Regional State Administration.
The event was attended by the Deputy Head of the Transcarpathian Regional State Administration Vasyl Ivancho, Acting Director of the Department of Agricultural Development Olga Perepelytsia, Acting Head of the Department of Tourism and Resorts Oleksandra Horzov, Head of the Association of Transcarpathian Tourist Support Specialists Oleksandr Shershun, entrepreneurs and representatives of NGOs of the region.
Richard Rozwadowski, a key expert on rural development, introduced the participants to the EU project "Institutional and Policy Reform for Smallholder Agriculture", which aims to support small agricultural producers.
In turn, Taras Antoniuk, an expert on geographical indications and value chain development, drew attention to the DAR service (State Agrarian Register), which allows Transcarpathian farmers to get help online.
Yulia Prokhoda, a national expert on legislation, spoke about the legal aspects of the geographical indication system in Ukraine, including the process of registration and control, and Oleksandr Koval, an expert on geographical indications, explained how to develop gastronomic and rural tourism using the case of the Transcarpathian region.
At the end of the meeting, Oleksandr Martyn, chairman of the Association of Producers of Traditional Carpathian Highland Cheese, shared his success story, namely the establishment of the first Ukrainian geographical indication "Hutsul sheep cheese".
Reference: Currently, three products with a protected geographical indication are officially registered in Ukraine: Hutsul cow cheese, Hutsul sheep cheese and Melitopol cherries. A number of other names are pending registration. These include Carpathian honey, Zakarpattia, Shabsky, Bilhorod-Dnistrovsky, Yalpug wines, as well as Frumushyky lamb and Bessarabian walnut.
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