February 1, 2011

Ukraine's economy ministry introduces meat import licensing 

Ukraine's Ministry of Economic Development and Trade is initiating introduction of pork importation licensing, poultry meat and lard in 2011, according to its draft resolution.

The Economy Ministry is proposing to make corresponding changes to the government resolution approving the list of goods exports and imports thereof subject to licensing.

Thus, they suppose licensing: chilled and frozen pork; fresh, chilled and frozen poultry meat and edible by-products; lard without lean parts, hog fat and bird fat not rendered or singled out in other way, fresh or chilled, frozen, salted or in brine, dried or smoked.

The explanatory note to the bill stresses, according to information from the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food Supplies, in 2010 they observed further decline in the average per-tonne cost of meat products: of frozen pork, by-products of bovine cattle and other animals, lard and animal fat, except for frozen beef and meat and poultry meat products, where the increases reached 1.6 and 1.4 times respectively.

In 2010, 148,400 tonnes of poultry meat and edible by-products, 102,000 tonnes of fresh and frozen pork, 38,700 tonnes of lard without lean parts and bird fat, 36,600 tonnes of edible by-products of bovine cattle and other animals were imported.

A trend is evidenced of taking into Ukraine meat of poor quality.

According to information from the Agrarian Policy Ministry, the situation is complicated by the fact that European Union manufacturers, having preferences of subsidised production and export subsidies, export meat to Ukraine at prices much lower than the Ukrainian ones.

Experts believe that such imports of meat products could be a destabilising factor in development of domestic cattle-raising.