September 15 2004, 12:13 APK-Inform

Ukraine: poultry breeding enterprises to export hen eggs

According to Olexander Baumenko, the Head of Board of the Poultry Breeding Union of Ukraine, Ukrainian poultry breeding enterprises are set to start hen egg exports to Europe in 2005. He said Agrarian Policy Ministry was negotiating with EU to receive 2 percent share of the total import quota for the delivery of the product to European Union. The amount may come up to 2-3 billion eggs.

According to experts, Ukrainian hen egg exports may become possible as a result of forecasted shortage of the product in Europe. This fact is caused by the gradual refusal of Europe to buy USA goods.

Baumenko has noted, however, that the main problem of our enterprises is absence of proper certificates. For today about 10 to15 Ukrainian poultry breeding facilities are willing to go through European certification procedure, which is said to be not too expensive but rather complicated. According to European low, feed and grain, which goes into the feed, should be certified as well as the product itself. Thus, the fields which are used for feed grain growing for the purpose should also be certified. These issues are to be coordinated until the start of 2005.

Besides shelled eggs, Ukrainian enterprises are willing to export shell-less ones, production of which has been recently started at Vasylkiv Poultry Farm near Kiev. This product is considered to be more profitable because it saves package and transportation costs and can be stored longer.

According to Poultry Breeding Union, hen egg production in Ukraine has been constantly rising for the last few years. According to AP Ministry forecast, in 2004 Ukraine will produce 11.7 to 12 billion hen eggs.