Ukraine can increase added value in agricultural processing

Ukraine's agricultural product processing sector is underutilized, with only 5% of gross added value from food, beverages, and tobacco production, according to Yuriy Lupenko, Vice President of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine. The sector is primarily driven by the production of oil and animal fats, meat and meat products, and beverages, with other products contributing only 4-9% to the value. Lupenko emphasized the need to expand the processing sector and increase the volume of agri-food production to increase the share of high-value added products. The potential for this is demonstrated by the high processing rates of sunflower seeds, meat, milk, buckwheat, and soybeans.

The high potential of the agricultural product processing sector that Ukraine has is currently far from being fully utilized. This was emphasized by Vice President of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine - Acting Director of the National Center "Institute of Agrarian Economics" Yuriy Lupenko, the center's press service reported. As the scientist noted, the share of gross added value of food, beverages and tobacco production is only 5%. Its structure is dominated by the production of oil and animal fats (19%), meat and meat products (16%) and beverages (13%). "At the same time, the share of processing and canning of fruits and vegetables, production of flour and cereal products, dairy products, bread, bakery and flour products is only from 4% to 9%," noted Yu. Lupenko. He also added that the level of processing of the main types of agricultural products by enterprises remains quite low. The largest is from sunflower seeds (69.3%), meat (6%) and milk (39.3%), and ...