17 January 2020, Berlin, Germany – This morning, the WFO President, Theo De Jager, and the Secretary-General, Arianna Giuliodori, together with Juha Marttila, President of the Central Union of Agricultural Producers and Forest (MTK), and Juha Ruippo met with the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry of Finland, Jari Leppä, and his delegation, in the margins of the 12th Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA 2020), in Berlin, Germany.
The Finnish delegation included: Jaana Husu-Kallio, Permanent Secretary; Satu Haapaniemi, Special Adviser; Jyri Ollila, Director for International Affairs; Paula Karppinen, Senior Specialist, EU Coordination and International Affairs.
The Ambassador, HE Anne Sipiläinen, and the Counsellor, Aleksi Vakkuri, from the Embassy of Finland in Germany, joined the delegation.
The meeting was an excellent occasion for meaningful discussions on the importance of the agricultural sector in facing the key challenges of our times, climate change. A specific focus was put on the International Year of Plant Health (IYPH) in 2020 under the leadership of Finland, and the recently announced UN Food Systems Summit in 2021.