Over 3 years homestead livestock slaughter decreased by 8.4%
The number of homestead livestock slaughter cases in Ukraine in the period from 2009 to 2012 decreased by 8.4%. And now less than a third of the cattle in the country are slaughtered in the yards. And in order to motivate the individual farmers to bring cattle and pigs for organized butchering and processing, rather than do it themselves, the government pays them a special subsidy. That was informed by the Minister of the Agrarian Policy and Food, Mykola Prysyazhnyuk.
«More and more farmers are bringing livestock for slaughter to specialized companies. The state, on its part, is trying to create the appropriate conditions to make it more profitable for farmers to take cattle to specialized companies rather than slaughter it at home. The Government introduced a new direction of state aid this year, under which peasants, farmers and cooperators will be paid a subsidy for cattle and pigs sold for butchering and processing. At the moment we have counted 8.6 million UAH under this program », - stated Mykola Prysyazhnyuk.
The Minister also explained that since January 1, 2015 farmers will not be totally prohibited to carry out homestead livestock slaughter. According to the Law of Ukraine «On safety and quality of food,» there will be implemented only some limitations.
«Farmers will not be able to carry out butchering of more than 5 cattle, pigs, poultry or rabbits a day. If the need arises, they can do it in the slaughterhouse which is registered by the Veterinary Service and has operational permits. That will enable to provide consumers with high-quality domestic meat », - informed the Minister.
Currently in Ukraine there are over 770 butchering companies, which can take up to 57 thousand cattle and 117 thousand pigs per day. These facilities are sufficient to provide the slaughter of livestock kept by individual farmers.