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14 dairy processing enterprises have prepared a joined statement to the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture on a special investigation on protection of domestic dairy industry from growing imports.
This was announced by Vadym Chagarovsky, Chairman of the Dairy Union of Ukraine during a press conference “Food products will rise in price by 5%, processing agricultural enterprises will suffer losses of up to 70%. Who benefits from the Law 3656?”, – writes AgroPortal.ua.
“We are arranging the meeting with Mykola Solsky, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on agricultural and land policy and Taras Vysotsky, Deputy Minister of Development and Agriculture to present our statement and initiate a special investigation by the Interdepartmental Commission” – says Vadim Chagarovsky.
Chagarovsky says that according to the preliminary results of 2020, there was imported 47 thousand tons of cheese to Ukraine, 28 thousand tons of fresh dairy products, 12 thousand tons of butter. If all this is converted into raw milk equivalent, it means that 1 million tons of milk were imported.
“In 2020 Ukrainian dairies processed 3.7 million tons of milk. Therefore, imports make up almost 30% of what is processed by the domestic dairy processing industry,” – notes Vadym Chagarovsky. He admits that today dairy processing enterprises in Ukraine operate on the brink of loss, do not have funds for development, and this business is not interesting for investors.
“Some enterprises become bancrupts. In 1990 there were 670 dairy processing enterprises in Ukraine, in 2019 only 178 reported on their business activity. I think that over the past 1.5 years, another 15-20 enterprises have ceased operations,” states Vadym Chagarovsky.
He expressed hope that when the Ministry of Agrarian Policy resumes its activity, the strategy for the development of dairy farming and dairy processing industry will be developed.