In particular, production of poultry meat has recently been restored at the Shakterskay farm, located in the rebel territories, according to a statement from acting head of the business Vladimir Konovalov.
“In total, the poultry farm houses 600,000 chickens, enabling it to produce 25-26 tonnes (t) of broiler meat daily,” he stated. “The main problem our facility now faces is the lack of a feed base. At the moment, we produce 30,000 eggs daily, with half this amount destined for export.”
Shakterskay boasts the largest poultry production capacity - 25,000t–26,000t in the self-proclaimed republics. Konovalov says the poultry farm is currently operating six out of 15 production units. If production were to be expanded to all the units, the poultry farm would be able to export poultry meat products as early as 2016.
Authorities in the self-proclaimed republics restored operations at a number of meat farms in the region, despite protests from their legal owners. For instance, Shakterskay was previously named ‘Shahterky Nova’ and belonged to one of the leading Ukraine meat processors MHP.
At the moment meat producers in the region have little choice but to cooperate with the heads of the self-proclaimed republics. Recently it was reported that the public prosecution office in the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) launched a criminal case against the management of the Gorlovka meat plant for refusing to comply with registration under the laws of DPR.
Meanwhile, representatives from the business, who wished to remain anonymous, said the heads of the meat plant found themselves in a very difficult situation, as if they agreed to go through the registration procedure, this would result in a criminal case from the Kiev prosecution office.
The heads of self-proclaimed republics need to develop meat production in the region, even though meat supplies there have improved in recent months. Most meat in the region is currently supplied via smuggling from Russia, mainland Ukraine and a few other countries.
Just recently, Ukraine Customs identified illegal meat supply channels to the self-proclaimed republics from Hungary and Brazil.
“After passing the border control, the same products were re-exported as products of Ukrainian origin, addressed to a company in Russia through checkpoints in the Sumy Oblast. For formal reasons, Russia’s regulatory authorities refused to import these products and returned them to the Luhansk and Donetsk Oblasts through the checkpoints, which are not controlled by the Ukrainian authorities,” claimed the Ukraine Customs Office press service.
Ukraine authorities are almost completely blocking any meat and food trade with the self-proclaimed republics. In response, the leaders in the East Ukraine republics claimed this was aimed at creating a food deficit and subsequent hunger in the rebel territories.