Ukraine may enter the Chinese chicken market by the end of 2019 — Bloomberg

Ukraine’s chicken companies may be the next to benefit from China’s meat shortage, Bloomberg reports.

Ukraine’s government officials are working with their Chinese counterparts on beginning poultry exports to China, according to Taras Kachka, Ukraine’s deputy economy minister. He was optimistic that an agreement could be reached by the end of the year, the message reads.

It is reported that the agro-industrial holding Myronivsky Hliboproduct (MHP) hopes to start exporting to the Chinese market soon.

“They have a vacuum,” owner and CEO of MHP, Yuri Kosyuk, said in an interview in London. “They will start to consume more and more chicken.”

China is opening to new markets for meat after its hog farms were decimated by an outbreak of African swine fever.

Ukraine’s poultry exports have doubled since 2015 and the country is forecast to ship about 350,000 tons this year, according to U.S. government figures. While that pales in comparison to the more than 3 million tons shipped from the U.S. and Brazil, Ukraine ranks as the world’s seventh-biggest exporter.