Andrey Pankratov, Senior Agricultural Market expert, International Consultant at FAO, noted that if we compare the number of animals that are exported with the number of those for the slaughter domestically, then this year the ratio will make up 0.4% for swine, and 3.4% for cattle.

«If we recalculate the export of livestock in the equivalent of meat, then taking into account the offal this year, such equivalent export may exceed 14 thousand tons. Our forecast for beef export this year is 52 thousand tons (in slaughter weight). That is, the export of «meat» in live weight totals 21% of the whole exports including beef. In 2016, this share was at the level of 18%, in 2014−2015 — 13%. So, we can say that the export of beef continues to be substituted by live cattle,» he comments.

The expert noted that the diversification of Ukrainian beef exports after the Russian embargo is rather slow. So, this year the top ten buyers of Ukrainian beef, except for the CIS countries, are Iraq, Vietnam, Egypt and Hong Kong. But their combined share still barely exceeds 10%. The leaders are the same — Belarus, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan.

Reference: in July 2017, export of dairy products from Ukraine in monetary terms amounted to USD 23.6 million, which is 5 times more than in July 2016.

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