The current state of the dairy industry, losses incurred during the war, prospects for recovery and further development were discussed by government officials, farmers and experts on November 3 at the International Dairy Congress.

Taras Vysotskyi, First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, spoke about the prospects for preferential lending to agricultural enterprises.

"The World Bank has recently approved assistance for Ukraine's agricultural sector in the amount of 500 million USD for 2023-2024. Of these funds, UAH 230 million will be allocated for grants, and UAH 270 million will be used to compensate for long-term loans taken by farmers under the 5-7-9 preferential loans program. The allocated funds will be enough to keep the interest rate on loans at 5%. That is, one fourth will be paid by farmers, and three quarters will be compensated under the program," said Taras Vysotskyi.

Andrii Dykun, the UAC Chairman and the AMP President, spoke and moderated the panel "Roadmap for the Recovery and Development of the Dairy Industry".

"High-tech enterprises that have been engaged in dairy farming efficiently are now surviving during the wartime. The World Bank's research shows that Ukraine has great potential for milk production, while the world is experiencing a shortage of dairy products. Today, there is political will from both the President and the relevant ministry to develop dairy farming. We are now at the threshold of a low start, and we can predict a significant development of dairy farm construction and processing in Ukraine. Ukrainian dairy farms have learned to get milk yields of 35-40 liters. But there are questions about processing: Ukraine needs to build large plants, and this requires cooperation between farms and processing. The industry is on the verge of big changes," said Andrii Dykun.

Hanna Lavreniuk, CEO of AMP, spoke about the industry's losses during the war, the growth of milk production in Ukraine, and emphasized the need to export dairy products.

"Before the war, 42% of all milk was produced in the regions that came under the heaviest shelling. Today, we are witnessing a rapid withdrawal of the private sector from the dairy industry. It is impossible to accurately estimate all the losses, in particular, data for Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Luhansk, and Donetsk regions are not available. But according to preliminary estimates by the State Statistics Service, Ukraine has lost 43,000 cows. According to the AMP, this figure exceeds 50,000 cows. More than 100 farms have been damaged or destroyed, and about 50 plants have been lost.

Although milk production is significantly lower than in 2022, there is an increase of 7% in terms of dairy farms, which indicates that producers are investing in technological and business models in the territories controlled by Ukraine. Dairy farms that continued to increase production, particularly in the central and western regions, contributed to the fact that by the end of 2023, 2.9 million tons of milk should be supplied for processing. In other words, we are not really talking about growth, but we are practically restoring the levels reached before the full-scale invasion," said Hanna Lavreniuk.

While in 2022, the EU saw peak milk prices, in 2023 the figures fell to those typical for the last decade, causing Ukrainian producers to lose their competitive advantages.

"Domestic demand has increased and in 2023 supports the domestic dairy industry, as about 4 million women with children returned to the country, but this is not the factor to rely on. Ukrainian dairy products need foreign markets," added the AMP CEO.

MPs Oleksandr Kovalchuk, Ivan Chaikivskyi, Serhiy Labaziuk, and Oleh Tarasov joined the discussions of the Congress. They named rising production costs, loss of personnel, and mining among the key problems of the agricultural sector. They also emphasized the need for the 5-7-9 program and increased credit limits in livestock farming. They also discussed the issues of processing, cooperation, hectare support, land reform, and the need to adopt a law on patronage dividends.