Ukraine increased the export of livestock products

A characteristic feature of the quarter of 2018 was the increase in exports of livestock products. This was reported by the deputy director of the National Scientific Center "Institute of Agrarian Economics", corresponding member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Mykola Puhachev, according to agravery.com.

In particular, foreign shipments of poultry meat increased in January-March of this year to 75 thousand tons against 65 thousand tons for the corresponding period of 2017. Export of butter for the I quarter of 2018 tripled against the figures of January-March last year - from 3 thousand tons to 9 thousand tons. The export of eggs for the three months of this year exceeded the corresponding results of 2017 by 2 times and amounted to 26 thousand tons.

In general, according to the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, exports of agricultural products in January-March of 2018 amounted to $ 4.4 billion. This is by $0.2 billion, or 4.5% less than the corresponding figures for the first quarter of 2017.

At the same time, the share of agricultural products in the total structure of domestic exports was 38%. The main markets for sales are three regions: the countries of Asia, Africa and the EU. In total, they account for 95% of the cost of Ukrainian exports of agricultural products.

The position of the main importer of domestic agro products has been maintained over several years by Asian countries. In January-March of 2018 they purchased Ukrainian food for $ 1.7 billion, the expert said. The share of Asia for this period amounted to 38.6% of the total exports of agricultural products. More than a third of domestic exports of agricultural products – 34% – falls on the countries of the European Union. For the first quarter of this year they purchased Ukrainian food for $ 1.5 billion.

"The volume of exports to Africa amounted to $ 0.7 billion – 15.9% of the total exports of agricultural products. The volume of exports of domestic agricultural products to the CIS countries remained at the level of last year's indicators – $ 0.3 billion, providing a share of 6.8% of the total export of agricultural products," Mykola Puhachev said.

According to the results of the first quarter of 2018 the rating of importing countries of domestic agroproducts was headed by India, which bought Ukrainian food for $ 530 million. Second place was taken by Egypt that imported agricultural products from Ukraine for $ 346 million.

"Ukrainian exporters also received significant revenues from Spain ($ 305 million), the Netherlands ($ 274 million), Italy ($ 253 million), Turkey ($ 246 million) and China ($ 193 million). These seven countries provided about 50% of revenues from the export of agricultural products in January-March 2018," Mykola Puhachev said.

Grain crops (due to corn and wheat), oilseeds (primarily soybeans), butter (mainly sunflower) and food industry products determine the positions in the commodity structure of domestic agro-food exports. Their total share is about 88% in agrarian exports.

The largest shares in the total value of purchases of Ukrainian grain are in Egypt (18%), Spain (12.4%), Italy (7.8%), China (7.4%), Netherlands (7.3%), Morocco and Tunisia (5.4% each). Together with Israel, Turkey, Libya and Portugal (with a share of at least 3%), these countries provide about 80% of the monetary volume of Ukrainian exports of this group of products.

Oil seeds and fruits were in greatest demand in Turkey (22.2%), Iran (14.4%), Belarus (9.0%), Egypt (8.3%), Netherlands (8.2%), Italy (6.8%), Greece (4.7%), Lebanon (4.6%) and Germany (4.0%). These countries account for more than 4/5 of the cost of domestic exports of oilseeds.

The dominant buyer of fats and oils of Ukrainian origin is traditionally India with a share of 44.9%. The rest of the main importing countries – Iraq (6.2%), Spain (5.8%), the Netherlands and Italy (5.7% each), China (4.6%) – falls considerably behind it. According to the results of the first quarter of 2017 the total share of these countries was about 73% of the total value of exports of this group.

"Geographical diversification of meat and sub-products supplies has led to the strengthening of the role of EU member states as defining consumers. In January-March of 2018 domestic meat products were in greatest demand in the Netherlands (20.4%), Iraq (10.2%), Slovakia (10.0%), Belarus (8.1%), Hong Kong (6 7%), Germany (6.2%), Azerbaijan (4.7%) and the United Arab Emirates (4.5%). These countries accumulated more than 70% of the cost of production of this group", - Mykola Puhachev summed up.