A mission of Chinese inspectors to check the Ukrainian system of state control over beef safety will come in April 2017.

According to a press release of the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumers' Rights Protection, the opening of the Chinese market for Ukrainian beef is of great strategic importance.

The first stage of inspection includes monitoring the work of the State Service for Food Safety and Consumers' Rights Protection, its territorial bodies and the laboratory network.

The second stage of the mission's work is inspection and certification of processing enterprises for compliance with the requirements of the importing country.

As reported, with reference to data from the State Statistics Service, cattle numbers in Ukraine (excluding the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the ATO zone) in 2016 was 3.675 million animals, which is 2% less than in 2015.