The National Swine Registry just completed a trade mission to the Animal Farming Ukraine show in Kiev. With respect to other countries, Ukraine is not a large swine producer, but in recent years there has been a fair amount of investment in new technology for the Ukrainian swine industry, particularly in genetics. Because of this, the National Swine Registry and its exporting members have focused on creating market share within the genetics market. Unfortunately, at this time there is not an established protocol for live swine between the U.S. and Ukraine; however, close to 3,000 doses of frozen semen have been purchased from Swine Genetics International and shipped to Ukraine in the last few years.
During the show, officials from the U.S. Embassy in Kiev stopped by to discuss the current constraints on live animal exports to Ukraine. Overall the meeting was promising and hopefully there will be movement towards a resolution in the near future. The FAS staff in Kiev has been very helpful in the establishment of the semen protocol and progress towards a live animal protocol. If a protocol is established, there are some great opportunities for U.S. purebred genetics in Ukraine.
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Pictured (l to r): Dr. Justin Fix, V.P. of Global Technical Service, National Swine Registry; Mr. Tony Clayton, President, Clayton Agri-Marketing, Inc.; Mr. Randall Hager, Attaché, Foreign Agricultural Service; Mr. Vladimir Getman, Director, Promagro; Mr. Alexander Tarassevych, Agricultural Specialist, Foreign Agricultural Service.
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