«Our statistics say that milk production in Ukraine is declining. It will be falling this and next year compared to the previous year,» she said at the Dairy Business 2017 conference, presenting the ministry's forecasts.

In particular, the ministry predicts Ukraine is expected to produce 9.9 million tonnes of milk and dairy foods in 2018. At the same time, she added, the share of high-quality milk in Ukraine is growing. Its output in 2017 is expected at 3.7 million tonnes, and it may grow to 4 million tonnes in 2018. Yet, the head of the board of directors at the Union of Dairy Enterprises of Ukraine Vadym Chaharovsky who was also present at the event, emphasized experts' estimates significantly differ from official state statistics.

«Statistical and real data on milk production are two different things, because basically the State Statistics Service maneuvers figures of milk production by households… There has been a decline in milk production in the past three years. This year, there is no break in the decline trend, and the figures mentioned at 10.68−11 million tonnes do not virtually exist in reality,» he said.

In his words, there are about 500,000−600,000 dairy cows in households that produce about 7−7.5 million tonnes of milk, while agri-businesses produce a mere 2.7−2.8 million tonnes of milk. Yet, he predicts the share of milk output at agri-businesses will increase in future.

«In the past five years, there was a positive trend towards an increase in milk production in the industrial sector, due to which processing enterprises receive more milk from agri-businesses than from private farmers for a third consecutive year,» he said.

To revive the dairy industry in Ukraine, it is necessary to adapt existing standards, normative and technical documentation in accordance with EU directives, develop current programs to support the development of the dairy industry and dairy exports, facilitate cooperation between producers and processors, he added.

unian