Dairy Trade: Imports Exceed Exports in Only Two Categories

This was reported by the Union of Dairy Enterprises of Ukraine.

Analysts also provided the key figures for September:

• total foreign trade — $59.9 million (+10% compared with August);
• exports — $26.7 million (+26.6% compared with August), the highest level since July 2025;
• imports — $33.1 million (-0.9% compared with August);
• trade balance — negative at $6.4 million (compared with -$12.3 million in August);
• export-to-import ratio — 0.81 (compared with 0.63 in August).

Experts emphasised that cheese exports reached 1.5 thousand tonnes. This is a record for the entire period of martial law.

Overall, exports increased across most product categories:

• drinking milk/liquid cream — 2.6 thousand tonnes, the highest level since December 2025;
• milk powder/condensed milk — 3.4 thousand tonnes;
• whey — 1.6 thousand tonnes;
• butter/milk fats — 0.78 thousand tonnes;
• all types of cheese — 1.5 thousand tonnes.

At the same time, imports of drinking milk, whey and butter declined. Cheese imports remained at the August level (4.46 thousand tonnes), while imports of fermented dairy products increased to more than 1 thousand tonnes. Imports of fresh cheeses, including cottage cheese, reached a record high for the period of martial law.

«Imports exceed exports in only two categories: fermented dairy products (by 1.6 times) and cheeses (by 3 times),» experts from the Union of Dairy Enterprises of Ukraine stated, explaining this by the specific characteristics of how Ukraine’s dairy industry operates.

Exports prevail in the remaining categories:

• milk powder/condensed milk — by 15.6 times;
• butter — by almost 4 times;
• whey — by 2.8 times;
• drinking milk — by 2 times.

The Union of Dairy Enterprises of Ukraine noted that the state of foreign trade in dairy products improved significantly in September compared with June–August 2026.