PHOTO: PTAHOPRODUCT
PHOTO: YULIIA NIKOLAIEVA
SPECIAL REPOR ▶▶▶T
Poultry production in a war zone
“On 24 February we woke up to a war and soon thereafter Russian tanks rolled through the front gate of the poultry farm. With roadblocks between feed plant and farm, egg production became next to impossible,” says Oleksandr Strilets, owner of the Ptahoprodukt group of companies, in an exclusive interview with Poultry World.
BY KATERYNA KUHARCHUK T
Oleksandr Strilets, owner of the Ptaho- produkt group of companies, shares his expe- rience of the Russian occupa- tion of his farms.
he Sumy region is located in the eastern part of Ukraine. It borders Russia in the north and was immediately occupied by the Russian military on 24 February, with heavy fighting for individual cities.
The territory was liberated from the occupiers on 4 April. During the occupation the Russian army killed more than 100 people and several dozen more went missing. In addition to human casualties, businesses also suffered losses. Companies were shelled, looted, office and production equipment were taken away. One of the companies that fell under the Russian occupation was one of the poultry farms of the Ptahoprodukt group of companies. The firm includes two poultry farms (6 and 10 hectares, respectively) and one compound feed plant. The poultry farm in the village of Vilshana came under attack
and was eventually occupied. Owner Oleksandr Strilets com- ments on the unprecedented situation: “You try to run the business as best as you can, but no managerial decision will work against a tank”.
Roads blocked The sites of the company are located in two villages: Lypova Dolyna and Vilshana. The distance between them is 42 km. However, as enemy troops controlled all the roads, it was impossible to deliver compound feed to the poultry farm in Vilshana safely. Russian checkpoints littered the roads and the Vilshana layer farm found itself cut off from supply from any direction. Likewise, it was practically impossible to deliver raw materials to the feed plant in Lypova Dolyna. “Drivers refused to go for raw materials because they feared for their lives. We witnessed civilian vehicles being fired on by tanks and machine guns. Some drivers who transported bread or flour have never returned. We could not force people to risk their lives and drive under fire,” Oleksandr Strilets explains. Strilets realized that the poultry farm had only enough feed in stock for 2-3 days. After which it was highly likely that the birds would starve. The factory was held hostage in both a military and a logistical sense. “That’s why on the third day, I decided to try the entire route myself, check all the
6 ▶ POULTRY WORLD | No. 7, 2022
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