Thanks to the modernization of equipment and technologies, leading Ukrainian cheese producers have already reached a level of quality and product range comparable to competitors from other European countries.
Arsen Didur, director of the Union of Dairy Enterprises of Ukraine, said this on the air of Ukrainian Radio. He noted that now the main margin in the cheese business is formed not due to cheese production, but due to whey processing.
The depth of raw material processing decides everything
“In the same Netherlands or even in Poland(by cheese producers, note LP) whey is decomposed almost into molecules, the emphasis is on whey proteins, which are used, for example, in baby food.
That is, European producers can afford deeper processing, and we are losing the competition here, as our whey processing is quite outdated,” UkrAgroConsult quoted the head of Ukraine’s industry organization UkrAgroConsult as saying.
In Ukraine, whey is simply dried and then used as a feed additive in livestock farming.
“The depth of whey processing allows the same Polish or Dutch cheese, producing similar assortment positions, to compete and displace us from the domestic market. Here, of course, we need more attention from the point of view of access to financing, and from the point of view of regulation of this market. Unfortunately, I can state that cheese production as a part of dairy products is the Achilles’ heel that we have and that we need to get rid of somehow,” says Arsen Didur.
He cited the example that the Ukrainian largest cheese producer – an enterprise in Rivne region – processes 300 tons of milk per day. If we take a Polish producer, it processes 1.5 thousand tons of milk per day.
“That is, in order to invest in whey processing, which would give efficiency and price competition, it is worth significantly modernizing our plants. Behind this should be government programs, joint financing of business”, – explained Arsen Didur.
The price of raw milk is also important
In a comment for Logos Press, Alexandru Candiguilian, one of the largest dairy producers from the south of Moldova, noted that the competitiveness of the milk and dairy products industry in our country at the current stage of development is decisively influenced by the high cost price and, consequently, the purchase price of raw milk.
“In the process of cheese production whey can be effectively used only for the production of albumin, including that used in baby food,” agrees Alexandru Kendigilian. – As far as I know, in Moldova cheese whey is not processed into such by-products. But this is not a problem of the first level. The main reason limiting the competitiveness of cheese and other milk-intensive products in Moldova is the relatively high cost of raw milk, even taking into account the good state subsidy “per kilogram of industrial milk”(about 3 lei/kg, LPnote ).
In particular, in neighboring Ukraine, the cost of raw milk is lower, both due to the effect of “large volumes” and due to the relatively cheap fodder base for livestock farming. This is also because, as some market operators claim, budget pesticides are used in the production of Ukrainian fodder, the use of which is legally restricted or prohibited in Moldova.
