tinydancer
Diamond Member
Clinton donors who were all pro EU sold the country down the drain. I hope Pinchuk burns in hell. Frankly I hope anyone that backed the violent coup in the Ukraine burns in hell for eternity.
Ukrainian Farmers, Poised for Growth, Stumble After E.U. Deal
By ANDREW E. KRAMERDEC. 23, 2016
SADKI-STROYEVKA, Ukraine — A cold wind whips through the streets. Vehicles that enter must drive through a foot-deep, moatlike bath of disinfectant, lest their tires track in disease. Computers raise and lower the levels of light to match circadian rhythms.
The scene is one of emptiness. One in four buildings is deserted. Fewer delivery trucks arrive than in years past.
As in much of Ukraine, hard times have befallen the Slovyany farm and its million or so inhabitants — all of them chickens.
“We could be a player, and not a small one,” said a forlorn Oleg Bakhmatyuk, the owner of Avangard, Ukraine’s biggest egg producer. “We could be a major supplier.”
The plight of his company, and the broader agricultural sector, has come to encapsulate a wider disenchantment in Ukraine with a trade agreement signed two years ago with the European Union.
The deal, which went into force in January, included protections for farmers in the European bloc, and, as a result, one of Ukraine’s most successful industries has been effectively shut out of the new opportunities.
For a blend of economic and political reasons, Ukraine built a singular capitalist achievement after the fall of Communism: enormous, technologically advanced chicken farms that are among the largest in the world.
At its peak, Avangard had space nationwide for 30 million laying hens. Thanks to cheap grain and low labor costs, it is able to produce billions of eggs annually at a low price. The wholesale price of an egg in Ukraine is 4 cents, compared with 25 cents in Poland and 35 cents in Germany.
Here in the hardscrabble farming town of Sadki-Stroyevka, birds far outnumber people. Each henhouse houses around 100,000 clucking, pecking, egg-laying birds. Cages stretch for as far as the eye can see. The buildings, which reek of disinfectant and manure, form extraordinarily efficient egg-producing machines.
The opportunities were so plentiful that Mr. Bakhmatyuk, colorfully nicknamed Ukraine’s Egg King, plowed a fortune made as an executive in a natural gas company into farming.
By 2013, Avangard had been listed on the London Stock Exchange, and it was still adding capacity. Its prospects looked good.
The same year, Ukraine’s president at the time rejected a trade pact with the European Union, choosing a deal with Russia instead.
Pro-European citizens took to the streets in Ukraine’s capital, Kiev, in protests that led to a revolution.
In 2014, the country’s new government pivoted back to the European deal, signing what was known as the Association Agreement. The pact held great promise for this country of about 42 million people, and Europe’s political leaders encouraged Kiev’s pivot to the West.
The agriculture industry was, however, given short shrift. The sector is often a sensitive topic during trade negotiations. Not only is it typically a major employer that countries view as strategically important, but it is also sensitive to price, fueling fears of cheap food flooding the market.
The sector accounts for about 40 percent of Ukraine’s exports.
But tariff-free quotas for most agricultural products, under the trade deal, are tiny. Allocations for honey, for example, were so low that they were filled in the first six weeks of the year.
Quotas to export eggs to the Europe Union equate to around 1.5 percent of just Avangard’s annual output, let alone that of the entire sector."
They got suckered big time. EU's quotas will kill them. Major reason why Britain is bailing on the EU.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/23/business/ukraine-eu-agriculture-eggs-trade.html?_r=0
At least Brits are getting out.
Ukrainian Farmers, Poised for Growth, Stumble After E.U. Deal
By ANDREW E. KRAMERDEC. 23, 2016
SADKI-STROYEVKA, Ukraine — A cold wind whips through the streets. Vehicles that enter must drive through a foot-deep, moatlike bath of disinfectant, lest their tires track in disease. Computers raise and lower the levels of light to match circadian rhythms.
The scene is one of emptiness. One in four buildings is deserted. Fewer delivery trucks arrive than in years past.
As in much of Ukraine, hard times have befallen the Slovyany farm and its million or so inhabitants — all of them chickens.
“We could be a player, and not a small one,” said a forlorn Oleg Bakhmatyuk, the owner of Avangard, Ukraine’s biggest egg producer. “We could be a major supplier.”
The plight of his company, and the broader agricultural sector, has come to encapsulate a wider disenchantment in Ukraine with a trade agreement signed two years ago with the European Union.
The deal, which went into force in January, included protections for farmers in the European bloc, and, as a result, one of Ukraine’s most successful industries has been effectively shut out of the new opportunities.
For a blend of economic and political reasons, Ukraine built a singular capitalist achievement after the fall of Communism: enormous, technologically advanced chicken farms that are among the largest in the world.
At its peak, Avangard had space nationwide for 30 million laying hens. Thanks to cheap grain and low labor costs, it is able to produce billions of eggs annually at a low price. The wholesale price of an egg in Ukraine is 4 cents, compared with 25 cents in Poland and 35 cents in Germany.
Here in the hardscrabble farming town of Sadki-Stroyevka, birds far outnumber people. Each henhouse houses around 100,000 clucking, pecking, egg-laying birds. Cages stretch for as far as the eye can see. The buildings, which reek of disinfectant and manure, form extraordinarily efficient egg-producing machines.
The opportunities were so plentiful that Mr. Bakhmatyuk, colorfully nicknamed Ukraine’s Egg King, plowed a fortune made as an executive in a natural gas company into farming.
By 2013, Avangard had been listed on the London Stock Exchange, and it was still adding capacity. Its prospects looked good.
The same year, Ukraine’s president at the time rejected a trade pact with the European Union, choosing a deal with Russia instead.
Pro-European citizens took to the streets in Ukraine’s capital, Kiev, in protests that led to a revolution.
In 2014, the country’s new government pivoted back to the European deal, signing what was known as the Association Agreement. The pact held great promise for this country of about 42 million people, and Europe’s political leaders encouraged Kiev’s pivot to the West.
The agriculture industry was, however, given short shrift. The sector is often a sensitive topic during trade negotiations. Not only is it typically a major employer that countries view as strategically important, but it is also sensitive to price, fueling fears of cheap food flooding the market.
The sector accounts for about 40 percent of Ukraine’s exports.
But tariff-free quotas for most agricultural products, under the trade deal, are tiny. Allocations for honey, for example, were so low that they were filled in the first six weeks of the year.
Quotas to export eggs to the Europe Union equate to around 1.5 percent of just Avangard’s annual output, let alone that of the entire sector."
They got suckered big time. EU's quotas will kill them. Major reason why Britain is bailing on the EU.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/23/business/ukraine-eu-agriculture-eggs-trade.html?_r=0
At least Brits are getting out.
