Customs statistics show that in July the receipt of chilled and frozen pork meat (UKT VED 0203) from abroad amounted to 4.9 tons, which cost domestic importers $ 10 million. USD 10 MILLION. It is 45% less than pork imports a month earlier and exactly twice as much in foreign currency terms. Denmark, Poland, Belgium and Spain remain the main supplier countries.
The key reason for lower import activity in July was the return of the obligation to pay VAT for importers under the simplified taxation system. Thus, the price of a conventional kilogram of pork automatically increased by 20%.
"Such an increase in price prompted domestic traders to switch to the purchase of cheaper raw meat. Thus, if in June the weighted average customs price per kilogram of imported pork was USD 2.21/kg. In June the average weighted customs price per kilo of imported pork amounted to USD 2.21 per kg. IN JULY IT HAD GONE DOWN TO $2.03 (-8%). Nevertheless, imports rose in the third decade of the month because of the revision of the official exchange rate of hryvnia to U.S. dollar by 25%. This significantly increased the competitiveness of domestic products," they say in the ACU.
The analysts warn about another rise of the import price: "As of August 1 domestic traders can procure another 1.8 thousand tons of chilled and frozen pork meat with bones, half-carcasses and cuts within the quota. However, after the exhaustion of these volumes, the import of chilled pork will be subject to 12% import duty and frozen - 10%. Although back in mid-July the meat processors expected the import quotas to be exhausted by the beginning of August, they were postponed with the rise in price of dollar," adds the industry association.
It should be noted that Ukraine has a duty-free pork supply agreement not only with the EU, but also with Canada (remaining quota by August 1 - 16.75 thousand tons of pork, offal and fat) and the UK (3.4 thousand tons of pork, respectively). However, given the significant increase in transportation costs and the remoteness of these countries, active shipments from there are unlikely.
The Association of Ukranian Pig Breeders is a nonprofit, voluntary organization founded by domestic pork producers. The main objectives of the association are representation and protection of rights and interests of the association farms, assistance in the development and introduction of new technologies for efficient production of pork, expansion of markets, protection of domestic sales market.