The Crimean Council of Ministers has begun an active propaganda and marketing of fatback, which holds the honor of Ukraine’s national product. The Ukrainian Fatback — 2004 festival has been slated for this October in Simferopol, its organizing committee chaired by Crimea’s Prime Minister Serhiy Kunitsyn. A fatback contest will be held as part of the festival, with prizes to be awarded in five categories: Salted Fatback, Smoked Fatback, Fatback Products, Figured Fatback, and Fatback in Chocolate. A consumers’ choice prize may be also awarded. Seventeen of Ukraine’s oblasts have been invited to the contest. Apart from selling their products, they will display their culinary artworks to Crimean residents.
Festival organizers have faced unexpected difficulties, however. Many retailers have panicked in the face of new competition: managers of Simferopol’s biggest supermarkets have ignored invitations to the festival. Crimean producers and distributors of fatback also treat the festival with a great deal of caution. According to Serhiy Ruskin, chief of the Head Department for External Affairs and Interregional Cooperation at the Crimean Council of Ministers, fatback is twice cheaper overall in Ukraine than it is in the Crimea. “Crimean producers have reasons for concern, as the invited guests are their potential competitors,” he said.
On the other hand, the festival is held against the background of an unfavorable situation in the livestock industry and is designed to convince everybody of the need for reforms in this sector. Yet current statistics show no signs of negative trends, but instead point to rising meat production.
For example, in 2003 Crimean producers increased meat output by 12.8% to 131,500 tons. Over January — August this year, Crimean producers put out a combined 91,100 tons of meat, up by 9,500 tons, or 11.6%, from the same period last year. Unfortunately, this growth is not fueled by increases in livestock, but is a result of intensified slaughter of animals, which has been occasioned by the shortage and high price of forage.
According to Crimean statistics, over January — August 2004 the cattle stock in the Crimea declined by 38,800 heads, or 16.1%, down to 202,100 heads. Over the same period, the pig stock in the Crimea declined by 53,700 heads, or 36%, down to 95,500 heads. Even the stock of sheep and goats declined by 7,500 heads, or 3.9%. Interestingly enough, a similar trend is discernible in milk production, which shrank by 5.9% in 2003. According to the Crimean Central Statistics Department, milk output in the eight months of 2004 declined by 27,900 tons, or 9.7%, from the same period last year, which was caused by a reduction by 18,000 heads, or 14.4%, in the cow stock.
Corresponding changes are occurring in the structure of consumption of livestock products. According to Andriy Yarmak, deputy director of the Agrarian Marketing Project of the company Land O’Lakes, Ukraine’s population is cutting down on consumption of fatback and rendered lard by 5% every year. As he put it, an abrupt regrouping of the meat market is proof of the declining fatback consumption. Only five years ago pork accounted for 70% to 80% of all meat consumed in Ukraine, with chicken and beef accounting for the rest. Meanwhile, today chicken occupies over half of the market, followed by pork with 25% and beef. Yarmak has pointed out that against the background of declining fatback consumption sunflower oil producers are increasing their presence in the market. In his view, one of the reasons behind this are growing incomes of the population, which result in higher nutrition standards. “National cuisine depends on the level of the population’s incomes. The less money people earn, the more fats they consume. When incomes are on the rise, people switch from animal fats to oils,” Yarmak explained, adding: “Germans, for example, consumed as much fatback fifty to seventy years ago as we do now. Whereas lard was considered a national German product in those days, now fatback is nonexistent in Germany as a product.”
Meanwhile, Crimean economists disagree with such an opinion. They admit, however, that there is a discernible trend in the world whereby nutrition becomes more diversified and the percentage of animal fats declines as the living standards rise. Yet these changes occur when the nation achieves a certain level of income, which is still a long way off for Ukraine. In reality, the current situation in the Ukrainian market of meat and fatback is due to the structure of supply and price correlations. Against the background of a declining pig stock and growing prices for grain and mixed fodder, fatback prices are rising sharply, while the market is overflowing with chicken meat that is much cheaper than pork. According to Yarmak, in 2004 fatback cost an average UAH 15 per kilogram versus a mere UAH 7 to 10 in 2002 and 2003. The Crimean market prices are way above those in “mainland Ukraine,” with raw pork currently selling for UAH 40 per kilogram and fatback for UAH 25-30 per kilogram. At the same time, chicken sells for UAH 7-9 per kilogram. Chicken meat supply is growing thanks to numerous poultry farms, which have been rebuilt and revived and produce cheap chicken meat. Crimean experts believe that as the living standards increase, consumption of pork and especially fatback will also rise but only to a certain level.
