REUTERS
Every year, the number of pig farms decreases by 200-500 entities.
The number of pig farms in Ukraine can decline by 42% by 2025 against the number registered as of January 1, 2019, to 1,000 entities, the press service of the Association of Pig Breeders of Ukraine (APBU) said.
"Given the dynamics of the last seven years, APBU experts predict that by 2025 the number of pig farms could be reduced to a thousand," it said.
Read alsoSwine fever outbreaks reported in three Ukraine's regions
The Association's press service says that along with the development and consolidation of pork producers in Ukraine, there has been a decline in the number of pig farms.
So, if on January 1, 2015, there were 2,700 pig-breeding enterprises in Ukraine that had 3.7 million pigs, then on January 1, 2019, their number decreased to 1,700 farms with 340,000 pigs.
Every year, the number of pig farms decreases by 200-500 entities, the Association said.
"In the past few years, 'natural selection' in Ukraine's pig breeding sector has been seen. Small farms whose stock is lower than 2,000 head leave the sector. These are mainly agricultural enterprises that grow pigs situationally (for example, when expecting favorable prices in the market) and do not invest in measures to increase biosafety and production efficiency, and, thus, are not competitive," the Association said.
At the same time, the press service added that such structural changes cannot be called negative, since those pork producers who have adapted to the new working conditions gradually occupy the vacant niche. So, if at the beginning of 2015, farms whose livestock exceeded 5,000 head had 67% of pigs for pork production, then by the beginning of 2019, such enterprises had about 75% of such pigs.