WordlPoultry: Ukraine: Avangard closes poultry farms

Ukraine's largest producer of eggs, Avangard, has began a major asset restructuring, Forbes.ua reports.

The head of the company providing raw materials for Avangard recently said that from the beginning of the year, the company had significantly reduced the volume of purchase of raw materials as several poultry farms had been closed. This information was confirmed by a former top manager of Avangard, who recently left the company.

Forbes notes that Avangard began to close poultry farms at the end of last year, and in January 2013 this process has gained momentum. By January 29 at least four poultry farms were shut down. These are South Holding Poultry Farm (Crimea), Chervony Prapor Farm (Luhansk region), Lozuvatskaya Farm (Dnipropetrovsk region) and Interbusiness Farm in the Donetsk region.

The former top manager of Avangard said that still it is not clear how large-scale restructuring will be carried out: "The final decision about enterprises is still pending. Anyway, the reduction of production capacities will not be sharp, so there will be no market fluctuations."

According to Forbes.ua a number of other enterprises including several feed mills, chicken rearing areas and warehouses will also be closed.

"Not all of the assets acquired by Oleg Bakhmatyuk during the gaining of capacities could be considered as successful purchasing, so now the company is just getting rid of inefficient and unprofitable enterprises," an official commented.