Ukraine’s manufacturing industry has shown a slight growth in the first six months of 2021 after a lengthy decline, but some of its sectors remain in deep crisis. The most plagued segments include foods, beverages, and tobacco goods manufacturing, which slid by 10.1 percent in January-June this year compared to same period of the pandemic-ridden 2020. This was stated by OPPOSITION PLATFORM – FOR LIFE MP Serhiy Lovochkin commenting on the most recent data by the State Statistics Service.

“Over six months of 2021, we have been seeing a decline in charred coal and petrochemicals manufacturing by 2.6 percent, in pharmaceuticals by 3.4 percent, in oil and gas sector by 4.3 percent. The situation is the worst with production of foods, beverages, and tobacco goods which declined by 10.1 percent. The manufacturing industry’s total did show some minimal growth in the most recent months, but its levels remain much lower than in the first half of 2019,” the MP said.

According to Lovochkin, the decline has no rational explanation.

“Foods production and consumption, unlike the service sector, could not have been affected by the lockdowns. Therefore, there’s just one explanation to it — the lack of professionalism of the people responsible for the situation in the manufacturing industry,” the politician said.

He added that the manufacturing crisis hit the Kharkiv, Luhansk, and Vinnytsia regions the most, which have been seeing the decline for two years now.

“The manufacturing industry cannot be left unattended, it needs support from the government, even more in organizational than financial terms. The industrial sector is only successful in those countries where the governments act as its lobbyist. Unfortunately, Ukraine’s governments have not done that for a long time now,” Lovochkin summed up.