December 1, 2011

Ukraine's 2011 milk production will decrease by 2.5% compared to 2010 and reach 11 million tonnes, the chairman of the board of the Ukrmolprom National Association of Ukrainian Dairy Producers, Vasyl Bondarenko, has said.

He said that in particular, producers would process about 4.6 million tonnes of milk in 2011.

Among the major factors for a fall in milk production, Bondarenko called the decline in sales of finished products by 20-30%, the absence of subsidies to peasants, which would reduce the prime cost of products, as well as an increase in electricity and fuel prices.

According to the State Statistics Service, all categories of farms in January-October 2011 produced 9.63 million tonnes of milk, which was 1.9% less than in the same period in 2010. Agricultural enterprises over this period produced 1.91 million tonnes of milk, while private farms produced 7.71 million tonnes, which was 0.5% and 2.2% less compared to the same period last year, respectively.

The percentage of population in milk production in January-October 2011 was 80.1%.