The Customs Union's increasing import duties on some dairy products, including butter, dairy spreads, fat, curd and some types of cheese, will not significantly affect the exports of these products from Ukraine, chairman of the board of directors of the Union of Dairy Enterprises of Ukraine Vadym Chaharovsky has said.
"This won't affect us as there won't be a reduction in imports, because it is impossible to rapidly replace them [import milk products in the Customs Union states]," he told Interfax-Ukraine.
According to expert of agricultural markets at the Ukrainian Agribusiness Club Alina Zharko, the increase in import duties will mainly apply to curd producers, as its exports from Ukraine to the Customs Union last year were the most significant among the mentioned groups of dairy goods.
"The increase in tariffs will mainly affect the export of curd, as its export together with cheese to Kazakhstan in 2012 were 1,853 tonnes, and this is 54% of the total exports of these products. Cheese and curd exports to Russia last year were 490 tonnes," said the expert.
According to her, Ukrainian exports of butter, milk spreads and milk fat are negligible. According to the data provided by Zharko, in 2012 the exports of these products from Ukraine totaled 678 tonnes, including 323 tonnes to Moldova, 159 tonnes to Azerbaijan, 104 tonnes to Kazakhstan, 61 tonnes to Russia. In January and February 2013, 20 tonnes of milk fat and butter were exported to Russia.
