28 June 2023
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Joint initiative from organisations in Holland.
AT the start of the planting season, around 10,000 Ukrainian households received free bags of Dutch seed potatoes from trading company IPM Potato Group LTD.
The donation is an initiative of IPM Holland BV, in close cooperation with the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) and the Irish Ministry of Agriculture.
Operations Manager Erik Appeldooren said the idea was conceived during a business trip to Kenya when he was talking to a representative of the Ministry of Agriculture in Ireland, about the situation in Ukraine.
He said Ukraine is not an unknown sales country for the trading company. "We have been doing business with Yurri Voloshyn’s cultivation, storage and transhipment company LLC TH-Hermes for more than 12 years. We have built a very good relationship with him and his family.
"As soon as the war broke out last year, we were able to help them by bringing his wife Yana and daughter Victoria to the Netherlands, and arranging temporary accommodation here. He stayed behind to keep his business running as much as possible. So yes, we already had contacts and in consultation with Voloshyn we conceived the idea to free up a large batch of seed potatoes, for donation to the population."
Source: PotatoWorld EU
