Infagro: Imports of dairy products continue to grow this year, but the growth rate has slowed down

Vasily Vintonyak, DIRECTOR of the analytical agency Infagro, commented on the results of foreign trade in dairy products for the first half of the year. – PioneerProduct

This year, more than 500 thousand tons of dairy products in MILK equivalent will be purchased abroad. In terms of money, imports have already exceeded exports since last year, since Ukraine exports mainly inexpensive milk-containing products or dry goods, and imports expensive cheeses. 

According to the results of the first half of the year, there is a decrease in import indicators for individual commodity items. For example, hard / semi-hard cheeses were purchased 7% less than last year (9.7 thousand tons). Purchases of oil for the first half of the year have almost halved to 3 thousand tons. But this should not be very encouraging, in the second half of the year its purchases will become more active again.

At the same time, imports of white cheeses continue to grow (+36% to 8.3 thousand tons), purchases of processed cheese increased by 14% to 2.7 thousand tons.

In general, the share of European cheese in our market is already quite significant, this product creates huge competition for domestic cheese makers. According to preliminary estimates by Infagro, importers have already taken over 35% of the market for rennet cheese (real) this year.

The import of fresh dairy products, although it has grown by another third, does not yet pose a big threat to our producers. According to Infagro's estimates, the share of imported fresh dairy products in the total sales structure for the first half of the year is about 3%. But imports will continue to grow.

PioneerProduct , based on "Expert Commentary"