July 14, 2011

Ukraine to produce 15 tonnes of milk annually

In three to four years' time, Ukraine will be able to produce 15 million tonnes of milk per annum, according to the Agrarian Policy and Food Minister Mykola Prysiazhniuk.

"Certainly, it is important to have the production flock. Today, in Ukraine, cow head make up 2.7 million. If we have at least three million head with 5,000 litres efficiency, we will have 15 million tonnes of milk a year. This is the index that we have to reach in three to four years," the minister said.

He also informed that those programmes operate for support of dairy cattle husbandry. In particular, a programme of money refund to farmers, spent for the purchase of calves for fattening to the amount of UAH7 (US$0.88) per kilogramme of live weight. He informed that programmes continue to operate on 50% compensation for construction of new or reconstruction of old farms and compensation of interest on credits received for construction of farms.

According to Prysiazhniuk, it plans to spend UAH1.5 billion (US$187.6 million) for those programmes in 2011. Another UAH10 million (US$1.25 million) was allocated for the purchase of milking equipment for farmers, having three and more cows. According to the Agrarian Policy and Food Ministry, Ukraine produces 11.5 million tonnes of milk, out of these, 1.3 million tonnes are exported. Import of dairy products makes up 600,000 tonnes.