June 13, 2011

Ukraine expects meat production to grow in 2011

Kyiv-based Ukrainian Agribusiness Club association expects the production of meat to grow 3.4% to 1.930 million tonnes in 2011.

"According to preliminary data, the growth of meat production in 2011 will make up 3.4% against last year's indicator of 7%," the association said.

The association noted that in 2011, the profitability of production of all types of meat has been decreasing due to significant growth of fodder prices, and they expect it would entail reduction in the production increase and further redistribution of the market.

"Under our estimations, the production of meat in 2011 will be 1,930,000 tonnes, at that the share of poultry meat would grow to 56%, and the stake of beef would fall to 12% of the total meat production volumes. Only the stake of pork would not change in the total market structure; 32%," said the expert of the association, Taras Hahaliuk.

Hahaliuk noted that the low level of paying capacity in the domestic market and high prime cost of production of major meat types would lead to a point in which the development will be observed at large vertically integrated companies, whose stake is continuously growing in the total structure. According to Hahaliuk, active formation of agricultural holdings engaged in pig breeding has been increasing.

The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade expects meat and meat products production to increase 5.4% or 111,000 tonnes to 2,170,000 tonnes, compared to 2010.

The Ukrainian Agribusiness Club association expects the population of pigs to shrink by 3-4% or by 241,000-322,000 heads by the end of 2011 over December 2010, to 7,717,000-7,798,000 heads.

In 2010, the pig population rose by 6.1% or 463,000 heads to 8,039,000 heads. In 2010, meat production rose by 6.7% or 184,500 tonnes to 2,922,500 tonnes.