Ukraine has agreed to details of a new export certificate that will allow immediate exports of purebred live cattle from Canada for breeding and genetics.

Canada, which is in the midst of negotiating a free trade deal with Ukraine, has only shipped live cattle to the country once, in the 1980s, as part of a project for the Canada-Ukraine Artificial Insemination Centre, the government said Monday.

Negotiations on a new export certificate followed requests based on "commercial interests identified by the Canadian industry for this specific market," the government said.

The export certificate and "newly secured" market access are estimated to be worth almost $12 million over the next three years, the government added.

The government said it continues to work to "open and increase market access for Canadian beef, poultry and ready-to-eat meat products" in the country of about 45.6 million people.

The Canadian Livestock Genetics Association, for one, "is pleased that these sometimes difficult negotiations have concluded with a positive decision for Canadian and for Ukrainian producers," executive director Rick McRonald said in the government's release.

New export certificates were agreed upon earlier this summer to allow exports of live Canadian hogs and, for the first time, Canadian swine genetics.

Related stories:
Ukraine re-opens to Canadian live hogs, June 1, 2012
Canada launches free trade talks with Ukraine, Sept. 23, 2009