By KYIV. Dec 1 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Union of Dairy Enterprises of Ukraine called on the Ministry of Energy and National Power Company Ukrenergo to agree on the schedule and volumes of electricity supplied to dairy processing enterprises, since such measures would help preserve milk production and processing industries and prevent a reduction in the number of cattle livestock.
Executive Director of the Union of Dairy Enterprises of Ukraine Arsen Didur told this Interfax-Ukraine at the Dairy Business 2022 conference.
He recalled that in early November, the association applied to the President’s Office, the regional military administrations, the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Agrarian Policy with a request to provide dairy plants with uninterrupted power supply. This is necessary because enterprises, due to regular blackouts, are threatened with spoilage of hundreds of tonnes of raw milk, or they will be forced to stop purchasing raw milk, which may force the adjacent milk production industry to reduce the number of cows.
Didur noted that the President’s Office responded positively to the appeal and sent a corresponding request to the Ministry of Energy. However, in November, the association did not receive a response from the said ministry.
"We ask: organize a meeting with the Ministry of Energy and Ukrenergo, and we will somehow balance electricity supply. They will tell how much electricity they can supply to which region. Then we will develop cooperation between plants, how much milk will be delivered to which of them for processing, who uses electricity before lunch, and who will receive it after lunch, for example. Then we can do something in the working order," the union’s executive director stressed.
At the same time, he noted that now the Ministry of Energy and Ukrenergo are working in a "fire" mode, eliminating the most critical damage to the power grid, but even in such a situation, power engineers should pay attention to the milk processing industry.
"We are constantly reminding the authorities that if Ukraine wants to have a dairy industry, it must understand that a cow cannot be ‘stopped’ so that it is not milked, and a dairy processing plant cannot be stopped so that it does not accept milk. We have a six-hour deadline to deliver it from the cow, cool it and send it for primary processing," Didur explained.
According to him, the milk processing industry understands that Russian missiles attacks have destroyed 30-35% of Ukraine’s power system, and both civilian critical infrastructure facilities and a number of economic sectors need uninterrupted power supply.
"The state must, through the available tools – the Ukrenergo dispatch service, develop priorities. If, roughly speaking, this is a hospital, then this priority is obvious. From an economic point of view, which industries should work with the most uninterrupted supply of electricity? Our industry meets all the criteria: if it is stopped, the number of cows will decrease, they will simply slaughter it," Didur said.
