A group of dairy producers (14 companies) has prepared an application to conduct a special investigation of the growing imports. This was announced by the Head of the Ukrainian Union of Dairy Enterprises Vadym Chagarovsky.
According to him, in 2020, 47,000 tons of cheeses, 28,000 tons of whole milk, 12,000 tons of butter were supplied to Ukraine. To produce such a quantity of products, 1 million tons of milk is needed. The Ukrainian industry processed 3.7 million tons of milk in 2020.
Chagarovsky emphasized that the Ukrainian dairy industry and dairy farming are in crisis, and the dairy 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.
By 2019, the number of milk processing enterprises in Ukraine decreased almost fourfold—to 178. Chagarovsky suggested that over the past year and a half, another 15-20 enterprises were closed.
Context. According to the State Customs Service, cheese imports to Ukraine increased from 23,700 tons in 2019 to 46,700 tons in 2020, and in monetary terms—from $108.9 million to $210.5 million.
Imports of milk and cream increased to 12,900 tons—by $11.6 million, the growth was 3.6 times and 3.3 times, respectively. Imports of butter increased to 10,000 tons by volume and almost 2.5 times in monetary terms—up to $40.6 million.
