Ukraine initiates meat exports to Palestine
According to the Ukraine government’s press-service, a memorandum on collaboration in agricultural trade was signed by the Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Mykola Prysyazhnyuk and the Minister of Agriculture of Palestine Walid Mahmoud Mohammed Assaf on 24 July.
“The main activity between Ukraine and Palestine is an agricultural trade and economic partnership. For the first five months of 2013, Ukraine supplied agricultural products worth US$2.6m to Palestine.
“Following the signing of the memorandum, our agricultural trade partnership will increase significantly, reaching a new level,” said Prysiazhnyuk, who explained that Ukraine is currently exporting mainly cereals, flour, grain and oil to Palestine. However, now the memorandum is signed, Ukraine will begin shipping new types of agricultural products to the Palestinian market, including meat.
“The agricultural co-operation with Ukraine is of great importance to Palestine, which imports agricultural products annually worth nearly US$1bn. Of particular interest to us is the import of Ukrainian meat and animal feed,” said Assaf.
The first shipments of meat products may begin in the autumn when selected Ukrainian companies will be approved to export to Palestine.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Agriculture expects that, over the next few years, the country will reach a value of US$7m per year in meat supplies to Palestine.
Ukraine has been actively developing its meat exports to the Middle East in recent years. It is now in negotiations for the supply of meat products to Iraq.
