World meat industry news

Ukraine’s second-largest broiler meat producer Agromars has completely stopped operations and is trying to sell off its farm assets and inventory.

A source in the Ukraine banking industry told Ukrainian magazine Novoye Vremya that the company found itself in financial peril. “In January there was some hope that the company’s farms could resume operation, but that hope faded. Company is trying to repay its debts with live poultry”, the banker said.

Previously Agromars commented that only some farms temporarily halted their operations. As explained by Ivan Zazyulya, the company’s general director, poultry production had been in red figures for some time. It was impossible to maintain profitable operations at the current feed prices, Zazyulya said in January of 2020. With weak local demand and unpredictable price fluctuations on the domestic feedstuff market, the outlook wasn’t positive, Zazyulya explained. The price hike for electricity and gas also took a toll on the company’s financial health. Agromars accumulated massive debts, which prompted some trade partners to go to court, Zazyulya said.

In 2020, Ukraine’s biggest egg producer Avangard shut down 8 production facilities, cutting 3500 jobs.

Up for sale

Agromars was the second-largest producer of poultry in Ukraine. Until this year, the company was supplying 30% of all broiler meat on the Ukrainian market. The company was primarily focused on the domestic market, selling broiler meat under the quite popular Gavrilovskyeye Kurchata brand. On 3 March, Ukraine bank Credobank put 5 poultry farms in Kyiv Oblast up for sale. These were previously operated by Agromars, according to documentation posted on the OpenMarket online trade platform. The competitive bidding procedure is slated for 22 March. The initial bid is set at 66 million (US$ 2.38 million).