February 5 2003, 11:00 APK-Inform

Ukraine will search to hold its share in Russian livestock products market

Deputy State Secretary of Ukraine for Agriculture Yuri Melnyk said February 4 that Ukraine should negotiate with Russia the issue of exports of Ukrainian livestock industry products as regards alleged introduction of increased import duties on meat and milk products by Russian government.

Russia has recently introduced quotas on imports of meat and increased duties on meat imported over the quotas (see our item of January 27).

Melnyk said Ukrainian meat and milk products could keep competitive in the Russian market on account of their high quality and lower transportation costs.

He said in 2002 exports of meat to Russia had increased. As of today, there have been determined the items that can enjoy good demand in the Russian market. These are cheese, canned milk and butter.