Lithuania to resume pork exports to Ukraine
Experts noted that Ukraine was previously an important sales market for a number of Lithuanian companies, but now, given the devaluation of the hryvnia and falling imports of pork into the country, whether it makes sense to renew supplies is questionable.
Jonas Milius, director of the State Food and Veterinary Service of Lithuania, recently conducted talks with interim head of the State Veterinary and Phytosanitary Service of Ukraine Vitaly Bashynsky, during which new veterinary certificates for meat and dairy product exports from Lithuania to Ukraine were approved.
"The Ukrainian market has always been attractive for our producers, but because of ASF, which came to the country last year, exports of certain products have been temporarily suspended. We had to revise and re-approve veterinary certificates, which will allow the resumption of Lithuanian dairy and meat product exports. We also had to give guarantees that products exported from Lithuania were safe and that we had effective ways to control our production cycle," Milius stated.
The recent agreements are expected to give Lithuanian producers the right to resume supplies to the Ukraine market within two to three months. However, forecasts say that Ukraine will import only 80,000 tonnes (t) of pork this year, compared to 230,000t in 2013, so the volume of supplies will be small. At the same time, recent reports have stated that Baltic pork producers urgently need to find new sales outlets for their products.
Pig farmers will have to cut production
According to Olle Khorma, chairman of Atria Eesti, pork producers will have to cut production, in particular in Estonia, as the industry continues to suffer pressure caused by the Russian ban. All in all, he forecast that, in terms of volume, the embargo would cost European Union countries 700,000t in pork production.
"Production in Estonia meets domestic demand by 106%, while pork production in the European Union meets the demand by 111%. Due to the ban on export supplies to Russia, there is an overproduction crisis in Europe. In order to balance things out, the EU will have to reduce production of pork by 3%, or 700,000t – which means closing around 700 companies of a comparable size to Atria," he stated, adding that most pork producer bankruptcies would take place in 2016-2017.
He added that, among all the Baltic States, Estonian pig farmers would probably suffer most from the Russian ban. He said: "In January and February the price of pork declined. Although the purchasing price of live pigs is falling, production costs remain the same. Breeders in Estonia found themselves in the most difficult situation and had to take pigs to Latvia and Lithuania, as they had no alternative markets, where they could offer their products. Currently they are only selling to meat processing plants that do not have their own pigs and use only imported meat," he added.
