Private joint-stock company Volodymyr-Volynsky Poultry Farm (Volyn region), part of Openmind Group, calls to sign a petition to ban from using antibiotics in agriculture and refuse applying them posted on the website of the president of Ukraine.
“The worldwide recognized problem of antibiotic resistance is the focus of the WHO [World Health Organization] and leading countries. Experience shows the impossibility of production without the use of antibiotics. It does not require significant investments, but needs serious changes in business processes, standards, as well as internal discipline of companies for events that need to be implemented,” CEO of Openmind Group of Companies Oleksiy Kovalenko said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine.
He focused on the fact that the refusal to use antibiotics in agriculture, including the production of chicken meat, is impossible without appropriate government support and amendments to the legislation.
“We urge everyone to support this petition so that it has 25,000 votes and becomes mandatory for consideration,” he said.
According to Kovalenko, in Ukraine, the market for antibiotic-free chicken meat is still estimated at only 2%.
PrJSC Volodymyr-Volynsky Poultry Farm is a Ukrainian-Dutch enterprise, part of the Openmind group of companies. The factory’s infrastructure includes 100 poultry farms, a processing workshop and a feed mill, as well as land for planting fodder crops.
The company is certified under ISO 2200:05 and is implementing HACCP principles in production of raw materials and finished products.
At the end of 2017, the poultry farm launched a unique product on the Ukrainian market – chicken meat without antibiotics and growth stimulants under the Epicurus brand, and in 2019 began the construction of a new meat processing workshop worth EUR 38 million.
