"As of today, according to calculations of the analytical department of the Association of Pig Breeders of Ukraine (ASU), the industrial population of pigs in Ukraine has decreased within 10%. This figure includes not only enterprises destroyed as a result of military operations, but also those that are under occupation conditions and, therefore, cannot sell live stock on the domestic market.
If the potential losses of livestock had been projected in the first days of the war, the figures would have been much higher. After all, during the first weeks the industry "became." Meat processors stopped slaughtering and stopped buying live stock. Farmers distributed the meat of pigs they had managed to slaughter at their own facilities to people from nearby villages. Many stopped impregnating sows and began euthanizing young pigs to reduce production under war conditions. Within a month, however, the situation stabilized. Market operators, primarily in the central and western regions, returned to the pre-war rhythm of work. And some producers even began to voice development intentions.
In the current situation, the potential risks of a reduction in livestock only in those regions where there are active military operations: Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. If we assume that all industrial livestock of these regions becomes unavailable for the domestic market, its share will be about 20% of the total industrial livestock of pigs in the country. Let's hope that this pessimistic scenario remains only a risk assumption and will never come true!
The lower supply of live stock today compensates for the higher volume of imports. During the first five months of the year 22 thousand tons of pork were imported to Ukraine, which is twice as much as during the same period last year. However, the positive dynamics of the price of pork in Ukraine indicates that there is demand and import does not hurt, but helps to meet it", says Oksana Yurchenko, President of the Association of Ukranian Pig Breeders.
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 development and implementation of new technologies for effective pork production, expansion of sales markets, and protection of domestic sales market.