Ukraine has begun implementing its newest European Union animal welfare standards to expedite egg, beef, pork, poultry and live pig exports into the bloc.
The January 1, 2026 directive is under the Ministry of Development of Economy, Trade & Agriculture, which will maintain consistent animal records for three years.
Focus areas include veterinary and current health data as well as basic rearing mandates like shelter, space, feed and more.
Documentation is applicable to all domestic animals covering live specimen, meat, wool, and leather products.
Pigs, layers, caged chicken and calves have extra standards, a highlight of Ukraine’s gaining footprint in pork, veal and poultry product trade.
Pork in particular came into focus during mid-2025 export accreditation negotiations between the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety & Consumer Protection and the EU. Under the agreement, the European Commission would outline approaches to African Swine Fever (ASF) before allowing pork exports into the union.
Other areas undergoing accreditation include trade of day-old chicks, hatching eggs and beef, hence the current focus on animal welfare standards.
Welfare Standards vs. Lower EU Quotas
The implementation of standards seeks to reclaim a diminishing share of national products in a quota-happy Europe.
Ukraine has since June 2025 been seeking extra-EU markets for poultry and pork due to limiting quotas within the bloc.
On June 6, 2025, the EU capped poultry meat quotas from the eastern European country at 52,000 tonnes and hen’s eggs at 3,500 tonnes.
This limitation prompted poultry and pork exporters to branch out to mainly Asian, African and Middle Eastern destinations.
The road to other markets is easy for pork traders since non-EU destinations such as the UAE and Hong Kong are already well-established.
Romania remains the biggest pork market within Europe for Ukraine while Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium serve as key import sources.
Beef exports on the other hand target a handful of European destinations, primarily Moldova and Georgia – with Asia filling in the rest.
With the welfare standards implementation, Ukraine’s animal products could overcome the latest quota caps by finding more regional acceptance. This could expand an otherwise stellar performance for live animals and related exports, per the below stats.
Ukraine Domestic Animal Exports Statistics
Ukraine is a major exporter of live animals and animal products to Europe and the world. In 2024, receipts by the country for live animal shipments totaled $38.14 million.
Cattle production is notably important for it drives both live exports and beef trade. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Ukraine had a cattle distribution total of 3,692,000 head in January 2023. The count reduced to 3,562,000 head in January 2024 and was down to 3,332,000 a year later. Leading live cattle export markets for Ukraine include Lebanon at about 45,000 head (2023), Egypt at over 65,000 head and Libya at nearly 70,000 head. Moldova, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are the leading beef markets for Ukraine: each absorbs at least 20,000 tonnes of beef a year, as of 2023.
Ukraine’s other animal product categories include a thriving poultry sector. Total poultry meat production soared by 6% annually to 940,000 tonnes by June 2025. The same period saw egg output rise by 8% to 4.4 billion units. In export terms, Ukraine’s poultry product exports to the lucrative European Union (EU) market suffered quota limitation in June 2025. Chicken eggs would hence cap at 3,500 tonnes while poultry meat at 52,000 tonnes.
Another major product is pork, which Ukraine imports more than it exports. In 2022, for instance, Kiev exported less than 1,000 tonnes of pork but ordered 62,300 tonnes from mainly Belgium, per the USDA.