May 24, 2006

Ukraine's January-April poultry, pork output up; beef down

Ukraine's poultry output totalled 124,000 tonnes in January-April, a 24.8 percent increase from the corresponding period last year, according to the state statistics committee.

Pork output during the period increased 48.2 percent on the year to 34,000 tonnes, and beef output fell 13.5 percent to 30,100 tonnes.

The number of pigs in Ukraine on May 1 was up 11.1 percent compared with the same date last year, at 7.34 million. Poultry numbers were up 5.4 percent to 156.05 million, while cattle numbers were down 4.3 percent to 7.37 million.

Currently some 200 new pig farms are being constructed in Ukraine, with the number of pigs expected to increase by 2 million in the course of the year.

Ukraine poultry output is likely to increase this year to 550,000 tonnes from 419,200 tonnes in 2005.

In the last few years, despite the spectre of bird flu, a number of serious investors entered the pork and poultry markets and considerable financial resources had been invested in upgrading the existing facilities and creating new ones.

The proportion of poultry in the total amount of meat consumed by Ukraine's population this year is likely to increase to 50 percent from 12 percent in 2000.

By 2010, Ukraine plans to be producing 800,000 tonnes of poultry, including 500,000 tonnes of broiler chicken meat each year.