In early October, the The Association Ukranian Pig Breeders (AUPB) conducted a monthly monitoring of pork producers' sentiments and expectations. The survey covered a hundred industrial hog farms, which by early 2022 cumulatively kept about 200,000 prime sows (about 90% of industrial breeding stock) and 2.5 million head of total pigs (70% of the pig population held in farms).
"80% of the surveyed pig farms (1.6 million heads) now work stably, including 5 of them (about 10% of the industrial herd as of the beginning of the year) trying to maintain work under occupation or in the immediate vicinity of the war zone . . In addition, 15% of respondent enterprises (over 0.5 million head) continue implementing plans for further development: restore production facilities after forced reduction and losses connected with military aggression, complete construction and reconstruction projects of production facilities, increase livestock, based on 100% utilization of production facilities. A number of operators are planning to increase the breeding stock, including through repopulation. Another 5% of the interrogated pig farms (about 71 thousand animals) finished the planned increase of the herd, mainly due to fattening," said the AUPB's analysts.
Concerning the problems, more than 80 of the hundred of pig farms interrogated (keeping 1.8 million pigs at the beginning of 2022) say that there are no considerable obstacles for sustainable work in the beginning of October. For others, the key problems now is the lack of qualified personnel, the uncertainty of gas supply during the winter and its price, the uncertainty of further price dynamics in the feed ingredients market.
The Association Ukranian Pig Breeders is a non-profit, voluntary organization founded by domestic pork producers. The main objectives of the association - representation and protection of rights and interests of the association farms, assistance in the development and introduction of new technologies for the efficient production of pork, expansion of markets, protection of domestic sales market.