February 5, 2007

Odessa plans to expand day-old-chick production with new equipment

Ukrainian integration Odessa Chicks LLC has contracted Dutch supplier Pas Reform to install its setters, hatchers, and a full range of hatchery automation and climate control systems.

The company is targetting target the production of 12 million day old chicks yearly at first, with the figure reaching 40 million by 2010.

Odessa Chicks is a vertically integrated broiler operation set up in 2000.

The company is based in the Kominternovo district, in the heart of Ukraine's grain region, giving it cheap access to grain feed.

Pas Reform Sales Manager Michaël Kampschöer said he is delighted with the contract and with long-standing experience and 82 percent market share in Ukraine, Pas Reform offers unrivalled commitment to the Ukrainian poultry market.

Odessa Chicks' main buyers are supermarkets, wholesalers and other retailers, about 10 percent of whom are from the Russian Federation, Tran Caucasian countries and other former Soviet Union countries.

Ukraine produces 450,000 tonnes of poultry yearly, supplying 70 percent of the country's needs. Poultry imports have continued to decline as a result of increased domestic broiler meat production.