East Ukraine poultry industry in ruins
“In particular, poultry farms belonging to one of the largest companies, Ukragroptaha, which is located in the Luhansk Oblast are 80% destroyed. Meanwhile, large poultry producer Miner Nova, located in Donetsk Oblast, has been plundered to such an extend that there is not a single bird left,” said Bakumenko.
He added that this was a huge blow to the country’s poultry industry, but did not specify the exact value of the damage.
However, UPB still forecasts that the volume of poultry production in the country will rise this year, largely due to growth in the country’s largest agricultural holdings – MHP and Agromars.
“Even in these difficult times, large agricultural holdings are continuing to develop, so poultry production will increase this year,” added Bakumenko.
“We now have several major problems, including the supply of water, feed and electricity. In principle, all of these can be solved, but to do so we need the support of the authorities, which, in the Luhansk People’s Republic [self-proclaimed republic in part of the Lugansk Oblast of Ukraine] are slow to meet our requests,” said the head of a locally based poultry farm, who requested anonymity.
“Also, there is a huge problem in selling the goods. Most of the people in the region are not receiving salaries or pensions, so it is extremely difficult to sell products. It is also impossible to send poultry to the territories controlled by government troops, so like other poultry farms we were forced to seriously cut production,” he added.
Several reports have suggested that pro-Russian rebels have succeeded in getting humanitarian aid through to the city of Gorlovka, located in the area of ATO, including a large shipment of live chickens. It is assumed that these chickens were confiscated from one of the local poultry farms.
In particular, the local community of Nova Gorlivka reported that rebels gave two chickens to every person, so the shipment of poultry was likely to have been taken from an industrial farm. Humanitarian aid is needed for the ATO area, as local meat markets are currently cut off from supplies, both from Russia and other parts of Ukraine.
According to Nova Gorlivka, rotten meat can be found at local markets and some people are forced to buy it because of the low price. However, in the past few weeks the situation in the food market in the region has improved slightly.
