Milk production decreased by 4%
New Year’s holidays are ended. Now operators are watching the prices on the market, tendencies, exchange rates etc.
State Statistics Service published data on annual milk production in Ukraine (without temporarily occupied Crimea and Anti-Terrorist Operation Zone). 10 682 400 t of milk were produced in 2015, which was by 450 400 t or 4% less than in 2014.
Milk production in agricultural enterprises made 2 667 800 t, which was 0.8% more than a year ago. 8 014 600 t were produced in households — that was 5.5% less than in 2014. As a whole, milk production remained stable in the second half of the year, therefore total figures did not show a change of the situation — decrease in production occurred because of reduced milk yields in households.
At the same time the number of cows was reduced in all categories in 2015. As of January 1 there were 2 172 300 cows in Ukraine, which was 4% less than a year ago. Rate of reduction in agricultural enterprises was almost the same as in households: −4.7% and −5.8%, respectively.
Statistic results of the year show a change of milk production structure in Ukraine, which has been rather stable for last 10 years. Sharp reduction in households and in category of economically inefficient agricultural enterprises was observed in 2015. At the same time big farms with skilled management continued to increase production per cow, and some of them even — cows number.
This trend will be observed in 2016 also, but milk production will be even more reduced.