The new pork quota count in Ukraine stimulated imports, but not significantly
Contrary to expectations, the activity of pork importers in January was not above average. This is stated in the message of the association "Pig Breeders of Ukraine". Thus, according to the results of January, the import of chilled and frozen pork (UKT ZED 0203) amounted to 1.92 thousand tons or $3.9 million.
"Compared to December, the volume of pork imports tripled in the first month of the year. However, such an increase is insignificant, because the weakening of demand for imported raw materials at the end of the year under more favorable price conditions in the domestic market is typical. The revival of importers in January is predictable, because from the beginning of the year, a new countdown of quotas begins, allowing to import pork without paying duties, that is, cheaper than a month earlier. Thus, in January, the average price of a kilogram of imported pork was $2.03/kg, compared to $2.15/kg in November and $2.2/kg in October," analysts comment.
It is noted that the expectations of the influx of cheaper meat raw materials from abroad turned out to be exaggerated, because the actual January import did not exceed the average monthly supplies of recent years and was 3.5 times lower than the corresponding period last year.
Lower import activity at the end of last year reduced the "gap" from the 2021 figure to 15.6%. Thus, in 2022 Ukraine received 47,000 tons against 41,000 tons a year earlier, and the key suppliers of pork were Denmark (34.9% of imported), the Netherlands (24.9%) and Poland (21.5%), which maintain leadership among other EU exporting countries this year as well.
As of February 6, the balance of the import quota under the Association Agreement with the EU is 17.9 thousand tons.
"In addition to the agreement with the European Union, Ukraine has similar conditions for duty-free imports within the commodity quota with Canada (18.6 thousand tons for the import of pork meat, pork offal and fat in 2023) and Great Britain (3.4 thousand tons). t for import of pig meat). However, given the remoteness of these countries and high logistics costs, such procurement operations are unlikely to be economically attractive," industry analysts add.
SOURCE: emeat