PRESS RELEASE: “How much high quality milk does Ukraine need?”
30 October 2014, 11:30 hours, Information Agency UNIAN
Association of Milk Producers
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Since 2008, the production of high quality milk in Ukraine has grown 54-fold. Despite the challenging economic situation and a war in the country, dairy farmers are ready to invest more and expand production but they would like ascertain the domestic demand for high quality milk.
When Russia banned imports of Ukrainian cheese, local processors had to urgently search for alternative markets. After all, the dairy industry of Ukraine, which provides the national economy with around USD 650 million dollars in export earnings, was almost fully dependent on the Russian market.
In response to this problem, the Dairy Sector Working Group has developed amendments to Ukrainian legislation, allowing for exports of high-quality dairy products to the EU. In turn, this should facilitate greater access to worldwide markets. The working group was created, with the support of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), to promote dialogue between the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine (MAPF) and the leading associations of milk producers and processors.
"To diversify exports by gaining international recognition, Ukraine should establish the production of high quality dairy products – which can only be achieved by utilizing high quality milk" says Andriy Yarmak, economist of FAO Investment Center. “According to our preliminary estimates, over the next five years, Ukraine would need an additional 1.2 million tons of high quality milk per year – equivalent to the production of approximately 150 modern dairy farms with 1 thousand cows each – to satisfy the market demand of the EU, the Middle East and Asia. Moreover, we should move away from assessing the success of the dairy industry by the size of the national herd. In the United States, for example, for several years, the number of cows has decreased while the overall milk production has increased," adds the expert.
According to the estimates of the Association of Milk Producers of Ukraine, the Ukrainian milk and dairy market reached 25.9 billion Ukrainian hryvnia – or close to USD 2 billion – in 2013, however, most of it was comprised of low-cost products with relatively limited quality. Experts from the Association of Milk Producers of Ukraine (AMP) consider that improvements in the quality of dairy products will have a positive impact on consumption and the development of market opportunities. Many people in Ukraine already prefer to pay more for the fresh milk from farmers’ markets than packaged and safe milk from supermarkets as they perceive it as of superior quality.
“The Ukrainian Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food believes that the new food safety laws adopted in Ukraine recently as part of the country’s commitment to the process of European integration will help diversify exports. The commitment of leading milk processing enterprises to investing in innovative technologies, the development of new products and new market discovery is already visible. These recent efforts from both the public and private sectors will lead to new jobs in rural areas, an improved trade balance, and, most importantly, will provide Ukrainians with safer and higher quality dairy products”, states Andriy Dykun, Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine.
Contact person: Klimova Irina (+38 097-615-12-77, [email protected])