"Even now, when the hryvnia exchange rate has collapsed, the cost of purchasing European cheeses like Gouda/Edam rarely exceeds $50/kg (with delivery and customs clearance). Traders-importers easily give such cheese to distributors for $55. Cheesemakers offer ordinary cheeses to these distributors, as a rule, at no cheaper than $70/kg," cheese experts note.
Accordingly, cheesemakers are no longer able to produce a product for export. And those dairies that cannot even cover domestic demand are forced to close.
At the beginning of last year, the production of surfeit products fell by 4%. And this is not the saddest statistic because, in 2018, production fell by 17% compared to 2017. In a more tangible equivalent — in 2018, 128 thousand tons of the product were produced, and this -—up to 9.8 thousand tons. Most of the goods delivered are cheese products, and a little more than 60 thousand tons of hard cheeses were produced. Next year, according to analysts' forecasts, the production of Ukran cheese will continue to lag behind the more affordable imported cheese and will decrease by another 5-7 percent.
An interesting fact: although Ukraine is not a large cheese producer and supplier, it is here that you can taste exotic cheeses. For example, in Volyn (Western Ukraine), cheeses are made from the milk of Alpine goats. For foreign readers, I note that these beautiful animals are not typical for our country, and the fluffy representatives of the Alps were brought here 3 years ago.
