Estonia's rural affairs minister to meet with Merkel, ministers at IGW fair

TALLINN – Estonia's Minister of Rural Affairs Tarmo Tamm is scheduled to attend a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and meet with his counterparts from a number of countries during his visit to the International Green Week (IGW, Grune Woche) food and agriculture fair in Berlin at the end of this week.

At the meeting of rural affairs and agriculture ministers with Merkel on Friday, the chancellor will introduce her positions on digital agriculture. For the first time, Merkel will speak to the agriculture ministers of up to 70 countries at the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture.

In addition, Tamm will have bilateral meetings with the ministers of agriculture of Slovenia, Ukraine, the Netherlands, Latvia, Lithuania and Georgia, spokespeople for the Ministry of Rural Affairs said.

"Participation in the world's biggest agriculture and food fair gives an opportunity to raise awareness about Estonian food and strengthen trade ties with other countries. Increasing the export of high value-added products is one possibility to improve the profitability of agriculture," Tamm was quoted by spokespeople as saying.

On Saturday, Tamm will take part in the 11th summit of ministers of agriculture on the subject "Agriculture Goes Digital -- Smart Solutions for Future Farming."

The Estonian exhibition at the fair is organized by the Estonian Chamber of Agriculture and Commerce. The Estonian products to be displayed include dairy, meat and fish products, jams, honey, kama four and bread.   

The minister of agriculture will attend the fair from Thursday to Saturday.

The 84th International Green Week will take place from Jan. 18-27. Founded in Berlin in 1926, IGW is a one-of-a-kind international exhibition of the food, agriculture and gardening industries.