SITUATION ON THE UKRAINIAN LIVESTOCK MARKET

Abstract

Ukraine is the second largest country in Europe, with about 42.2 million hectares of agricultural land, which is 70% of the country’s total area. The agricultural sector plays vital role in the Ukrainian economy, and Ukraine has become an important player of several farm markets, due to its huge agricultural potential and advantageous geographical location with access to the Black Sea and direct access to key markets in the EU, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Middle East and North Africa. The purpose of this study is to analyze the state of the livestock market in Ukraine. The author identified that large specialized producers will not be able to compensate for the loss of livestock in rural households, and despite some decline in beef and pork consumption (mainly due to population decline), Ukraine is projected to be a net importer of beef and pork. Production of cow's milk, beef and pork is projected to decline. One of the reasons is the restructuring of the livestock sector, with rural households as small producers exiting the sector and larger specialized dairy, beef and pig farms entering the sector. However, as large specialised producers will not be able to compensate for the loss of livestock in rural households, and despite some decline in beef and pork consumption (mainly due to population decline), Ukraine is projected to be a net importer of beef and pork. Net imports may reach 45.6 thousand tons for beef and 270.3 thousand tons for pork. In contrast, developments in the chicken and egg sectors are quite positive. In Ukraine, producers of these products are usually large enterprises that also produce chicken feed. This allows such producers to benefit from economies of scale and reduce production costs. By 2030, chicken meat production in Ukraine is projected to grow by 35.8% and chicken egg production by 63.2%. Despite the general trend, different livestock sectors have their own peculiarities of development. During 2010-2018, the total number of cattle decreased from 4.8 to 3.1 million heads, i.e. by 30.6%. The largest reduction in livestock occurred in households. Since during this period the slaughter weight of cattle in agricultural enterprises increased from 203 to 229 kilograms, while in households it reached only 159 kilograms, the impact of the reduction in livestock on total beef and veal production was less than the actual reduction in production. Nevertheless, total beef and veal production decreased by 13.6% (i.e. from about 428 to 359 thousand tons in live weight).