Rapid development of pork industry in Ukraine

01-06-2011 | Home | News

The total volume of pork export from the Ukraine in the current year shows a sharp increase compared with the last year. The inability to consume the entire amount produced in the domestic market has forced Ukraine to increase deliveries to foreign markets.

In the first quarter of 2011 the country exported 4.3 thousand tonnes of pork abroad – mostly to Russia, according to the deputy general director of Ukrainian Agrarian Conference (UAC) Alexander Yaroslavsky. According to his statement, 2011 can be considered as the first year that Ukrainian pork exported to foreign markets, but so far only in the CIS markets.

He further noted that such development was quite predictable, as the growth rate of pork production in Ukraine in recent years beat all records. But the domestic market could not consume such an amount, thus purchase prices for hogs fell and companies involved in the pork industry in 2010 experienced losses. Their level of profitability was negative and measured about – 7.4%. In this situation, exports increasing was the only salvation for the industry.

Of course, the external market would not be able to remove all surplus pork from the Ukraine market, but the trend is very positive – said the UAC experts. The rapid development of the pig industry in Ukraine has also been indicated by official data. The data also stated that from January to March 2010 the volume of pork import to Ukraine dropped by 50% compared to the same period of 2009.