From 6 to 9 August, representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture (ZM) made a working visit to Ukraine to discuss matters relating to food supplies for the army and the civilian population, trade in mineral fertilisers, cooperation in forest management and other current topics.

On the first day of the visit, the Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Normunds Šmits, opened the international agricultural exhibition “UKAB Agrotehnoloģijas 2025”. During the exhibition, members of the Latvian delegation met representatives of several Ukrainian companies to discuss current trends and challenges in the agricultural sector in Latvia and Ukraine. The delegation also visited the Ukrainian sprayer manufacturer AS “Bohuslavska silhoztehnika”.

On the second day, the Latvian delegation met the head of the Kyiv Regional Administration, Mikola Kalašņiks. The talks covered civil protection matters, food security mechanisms and Ukraine's progress towards European Union membership. Particular attention was paid to the experience of Latvian companies in forest management and their potential to strengthen Ukraine's forestry capacity.

On the final day, representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture met representatives of the Bila Tserkva district administration. During the visit, both a regional-level memorandum of cooperation with representatives of the Bila Tserkva district and a national-level memorandum of cooperation with Ukraine's Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture were signed. The memoranda provide for cooperation at both national and regional level, promoting the transfer of knowledge and the exchange of good practice so that Ukraine can recover as quickly as possible from the devastating impact of the war on rural areas.

The delegation also visited Bila Tserkva National Agrarian University, where potential areas of cooperation with the Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies (LBTU) were discussed. The Ukrainian side expressed interest in LBTU's specialised study programmes in agronomy, veterinary medicine and forestry, while the Latvian representatives expressed a readiness to cooperate on the transfer of knowledge in drone technologies. Both sides agreed to continue the work so that, in the near future, teaching staff and students of both universities can make use of the opportunities the universities offer and broaden their knowledge in many ways.

The Latvian delegation was led by the Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Normunds Šmits. The Ministry of Agriculture was also represented by State Secretary Ģirts Krūmiņš and Deputy State Secretary Juris Zīvarts, while LBTU was represented by Linards Sisenis, Professor at the Faculty of Forest and Environmental Sciences and Doctor of Forest Sciences.