Unprofitable livestock breeding in the Ukraine
According to the Ukrainian Statistics Committee, the profitability of the agricultural sector in 2002 is expected to reach an average of 5.3% compared with 5% last year.
The highest profitability is expected in the Dnipropetrovsk region (+14.5%), the Kharkiv region (+13.6%) and the Zaporyzhya region (+11.3%). The lowest is expected in the Zhytomir region (-10.3%), the Volyn region (-8.5%) and Crimea (-8.5%).
The worst figure is expected in livestock breeding – minus 12.6% against minus 6.6% last year.
Ukrainian experts are also worried that the production of feed grain will be lower this year due to extensive exports. To produce a sufficient amount of fodder an average of 12-15 million tonnes of feed grain is required. From November, only 2 million tonnes had been stored. In recent years Ukrainian farmers were able to store some 50% - 60% of the grain for feed.
