Agromars Complex to demand compensation of losses from death of over 600,000 birds from Kyivoblenergo in court
Kyiv, June 22 (Interfax-Ukraine) - Agromars Complex LLC (Havrylivski Kurchata brand, Kyiv region), one of the largest poultry producers in Ukraine, plans to demand in court compensation for losses caused by deaths of over 600,000 birds on its poultry farms due to power blackouts.
"We'll file claims against the monopolist – the supplier of electricity – Kyivoblenergo… According to preliminary calculations, today the losses are evaluated at several hundreds of millions of hryvnias," Director-at-Large at the Agromars Complex Oleksiy Marchenko said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on June 22, 2012.
He said that preliminary the losses amount to UAH 200 million, including expenses of the company to disposal of the killed birds.
He added that the company is preparing an address to the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine, and the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine, and will ask the National Commission for Energy Regulation (NCER) to revise the license of Kyivoblenergo for the supply of electricity.
Marchenko said that on June 10, 2012, 30 poultry farms of the company were disconnected from power, which caused death of over 600,000 chickens with total weight of over 830 tonnes. He said that due to the absence of power for five hours and 30 minutes, the temperature at the farms grew to 45 centigrade with the optimal temperature being 20-22 centigrade.
Marchenko said that Agromars Complex disposed the killed birds at veterinary sanitary disposal plants, showing documents confirming this fact to journalists. He said that the company paid for the disposal of the birds. The cost of disposal per tonne came to UAH 150. The director said that the company was not insured from such events. He also said that as of June 14, 2012, the consequences of the situation were eliminated.
The director said that not one tonne of bad-quality products was sent to retail chains, as some media reports say. He said that despite the present situation, the company shipped products in line with contracts signed.
Marchenko also said that the company's poultry farms bred over nine million birds before the incident. He said that despite the losses, the company plans to boost production of chickens by 60,000-70,000 tonnes in 2012 compared to 2011. Agromars Complex has started importing eggs and chickens to compensate for its losses.
Agromars Complex is a holding company with a closed production cycle, which allows it to control all stages of the business, from planting grain crops, the production of mixed fodder, breeding pedigree poultry and broilers for meat processing, and selling chicken via its own franchise chain.
The main production facility is located in Havrylivka in Kyiv region.