You're reading: Dairy producers initiate special investigation into growing imports

A group of 14 dairy producers have prepared a statement to conduct a special investigation into growing imports to Ukraine to protect domestic producers, Vadym Chaharovsky, the head of the Union of Dairy Enterprises of Ukraine, has told Interfax-Ukraine.

“Some 47,000 tonnes of cheese, 28,000 tonnes of whole milk, 12,000 tonnes of butter (in 2020) were supplied to Ukraine. If we transform all this into raw materials, into milk, then in reality we receive one million tonnes of milk in imports. The Ukrainian processing industry, according to preliminary data, processed 3.7 million tonnes of milk in 2020, that is, one million tonnes of milk is almost 30% of what the Ukrainian dairy industry processes today in a year,” he said.

Chaharovsky emphasized that the Ukrainian dairy industry and dairy farming are in crisis, and milk processing enterprises in the country do not have their own resources for development and are working on the verge of loss. For this reason, dairy processing enterprises are not interesting for big business, so in the near future there will hardly be any deals on their purchase and sale, the head of the association added.

He pointed out that the number of milk processing enterprises in Ukraine by 2019 had decreased almost fourfold, to 178, and suggested that about 15-20 more enterprises were closed in a year and a half since the publication of statistics.

As reported with reference to the State Customs Service, cheese imports to Ukraine in 2020 increased from 23,700 tonnes compared to 2019, to 46,700 tonnes, and in dollar terms from $ 108.9 million to $ 210.5 million.

In addition, in 2020, import of milk and cream sharply increased – to 12,900 tonnes worth $ 11.6 million: the jump was 3.6 times and 3.3 times, respectively. The growth of import of butter was also significant in the past year – to 10,000 tonnes in natural terms and almost 2.5 times in monetary terms – to $ 40.6 million.