Ukraine sees big jump in poultry and meat exports

By By Vladislav Vorotnikov, Moscow

- Last updated on GMT

Ukraine meat and poultry rises by 60%
Ukraine meat and poultry rises by 60%

Related tags Meat exports Meat Livestock Ukraine

Ukraine’s meat exports rose by almost 60% year-on-year in the first 10 months of 2013.

The most significant increase was seen in poultry meat, with exports up 80% compared to the first 10 months of 2012.

Mykola Prysyazhnyuk, Ukraine’s Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food, said: “This year we have managed to reduce the import of meat products by almost 24%. In parallel to this, we were able to increase exports by nearly 60%.

“This has been achieved due to numerous factors, including the opening of new markets, an increase in livestock production and a further increase in livestock industry capacity. Therefore, the government will continue its support of [meat industry] programmes.”

Prysyazhnyuk added that one of the main achievements of 2013 was starting poultry exports to the EU. “Deliveries of this group of products to foreign markets increased significantly during this year – by more than 80%,”​ he said.

According to the Minister, the largest buyers of Ukraine poultry this year were the CIS countries, Iraq, Turkey, Georgia, Jordan, Libya and the EU. For beef, the largest markets were Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Moldova, and for pork the biggest market was Russia.

Ukraine is also gradually increasing exports of fresh and frozen beef. Over the past 10 months the supply of these products abroad increased on average by 40%.

One of the main factors contributing to the development of Ukraine’s beef exports was the decision by the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food to reduce duties on the export of live cattle from 25% to 5% earlier this year.

Prysyazhnyuk said the adoption of these changes contributed to increased business interest in beef production, which should boost Ukraine’s export potential.

He added that Ukraine was now working to increase meat exports to the EU market.

“For this we are continuing to harmonise sanitary and phytosanitary requirements between Ukraine and Europe. And our ultimate goal is to eliminate any barriers to trade,”​ he said.

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