More than 20 Ukrainian dairy processors export to the EU — despite the full-scale war. At the International Dairy Community Forum in Białystok, the delegation of the Union of Dairy Enterprises of Ukraine (UDEU) told European peers why the industry is ready to compete, but not to accept double standards.

For the dairy business, Poland is perhaps the most convincing case for what EU membership can deliver. In the two decades since its 2004 accession, Polish producers have moved from painful adaptation to European standards to becoming key players in the single market. 

That made Białystok — host of the 9–10 September forum — not just a venue for debate but a mirror of Ukraine’s own possible future.

Who represented Ukraine

The delegation brought together UDEU staff — executive director Arsen Didur and European Integration Committee secretary Elisabeth Svyatkivska — alongside top managers from leading dairy companies: Raisa Mykhailova (Firma Favor), Serhii Roshchyn (Kombinat Prydniprovskyi), Svitlana Crouzet (Lactalis Ukraine), Yurii Shevchuk (Olam Food Ingredients) and Mykhailo Pankiv (Molokiya). 

The central event was the panel „Free Trade Agreements, EU enlargement and the future of the European dairy sector: how can the competitiveness of the dairy industry be strengthened?“, where Ukraine’s position was presented by Didur, Elisabeth Svyatkivska and Yurii Shevchuk — VP and head of the dairy business for CIS & MENA at Olam Food Ingredients.

The Polish lesson

The Ukrainian side’s core argument: Poland’s path proves that integration into the European market can be a driver rather than a threat. The neighbours’ experience shows that EU access can be a powerful stimulus for modernisation and for lifting national producers’ competitiveness.

„The Polish model of integrating the dairy industry into the EU is an example for Ukraine. More than 20 Ukrainian dairy processors export their products to the European Union. This shows that Ukraine is getting through the war without lowering the quality of its products.“ — Arsen Didur, executive director of UDEU

Quality as the argument

Tellingly, the war featured in Białystok not as a plea for leniency but as proof of resilience. Ukraine is on an extremely hard road, yet it keeps its food — dairy included — at high quality: the result of daily work by farmers, processors and every link in the supply chain. 

For European partners the signal matters — the Ukrainian producer comes to the single market not as a supplicant but as a competitor already playing by its rules.

Red lines

At the same time, the delegation set out clearly what the industry will not accept. First, the use of humanitarian aid as a tool to push European dairy products onto the Ukrainian market. Second, „grey“ schemes through which European retailers’ private-label products enter Ukraine. 

Both practices effectively put Ukrainian processors on unequal terms in their own market — precisely when the sector is already operating under the pressure of war. 

UDEU’s stance fits one formula: trade must be either free or mirrored. Equal rules, transparent conditions and fair competition — that, the Union insists, is what European integration should be built on.

Good-neighbourliness as a business model

Ukrainian-Polish relations in agriculture have repeatedly become the subject of political disputes in recent years — which makes the message Ukrainians brought to Białystok all the more striking: cooperation between the two countries’ dairy businesses can show politicians what genuine good-neighbourliness looks like in practice. 

Open dialogue, mutual respect and fair trading rules, UDEU stresses, are the basis for both industries’ sustainable development. The delegation also thanked its Polish colleagues for their openness and for the chance to discuss a shared future for the Ukrainian and European dairy sectors.

What comes next

The forum’s closing panel — „The European agricultural sector at a turning point: recommendations from the dairy sector“ — moved the conversation from declarations to practice. Participants focused on concrete recommendations for the EU dairy industry, from competitiveness and regulation to investment, risk management and the future of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). 

For Ukraine, on its path to EU membership, these recommendations are no abstraction: the rules taking shape today will define the terms on which Ukrainian dairy producers work in the single market tomorrow.