This is serious, because in the past Ukrainian cheese makers were selling about 2−3 thousand tons of cheese products thorough this channel monthly. Now, producers of the cheese products will have to produce 2 thousand tons less, because the prospect of increasing supplies to other markets is vague and there are no prerequisites for the growth of domestic consumption of cheese products.

Manufacturers of real cheeses have not yet fully understood that the businesses that have lost their market for cheese products will try to switch to production of real cheese. This means that competition in the market will become more intense. This conclusion is based on the prices of sales of the leading manufacturers. They not only reduce the prices, but in February some of the cheese makers even increased the prices. In mid-February, leading manufacturers sell «popular» cheeses directly to distributors at 150−160 UAH/kg.

Prices for cheese product, for obvious reasons, are decreasing. In Kazakhstan, the product is still sold at 2300−2400 USD/t, but operators believe that due to the increased competition, some will soon offer to this market «aging» cheese product at 2000 USD/t.

It should be recalled that supply of cheese products to Belarus was ceased on January 17, immediately after the official order of the chief sanitary inspector of the country. Therefore, the total export of cheese products decreased to 2,2 thousand tons, while in January 2018 there were exported 5.4 thousand tons of cheese products from the country.

Exports of cheese products will continue to shrink.

infagro