The Ministry of Agrarian Policy affirms that there are no problems with ASF in pig production

The number of pigs in Ukraine has decreased by 6%, but this year the authorities hope to change this trend. This was announced by the First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Maksym Martyniuk during an online conference on his Facebook page, reports UNN.

"We see a reduction in the number of livestock in the pork market (-6.3%), but this year we will change the trend thanks to two tools: a support program for the construction of farms and full-fledged funding for fighting ASF," says he.

At the same time, according to the official, the ASF virus remains a more risk factor than a real problem that causes losses.

"But this risk factor demotivates investment in the industry, and this year the epizootic situation is more prosperous than in the past, for example, 58 cases were registered this year, of which 27 are from the population's economy, 25 are wildlife, and only 6 are agro-producers, of which nobody is large. The price situation on the market is stable," adds he.

At the same time, the statistics show a few other trends in the pork market. In particular, it was this type of meat, and salo, which broke all the price records: for the year pork rose by 41%, and salo - by 71%.

The volume of imports of pork and salo from abroad is also growing. As for losses from ASF, in 2017 they reached $ 12 million. At the same time, as of February this year, farmers received only 37% of compensation for pigs killed because of ASF.

According to People's Deputy Serhii Tryhubenko, the rate of spread of the virus through the territory of Ukraine is not decreasing.

So, only during the current week at least four new cases of ASF were recorded (in the Cherkasy, Kyiv, Rivne and Ternopil regions).

We note that, in the opinion of farmers and cattle-breeding organizations, the authorities ignore the problem of the ASF, without taking the proper steps to solve it.