[Campaign update] Protestors take to Kyiv to demand action from agribusiness giant encroaching on their lands
February 24, 2017
On 22 February, more than 70 activists and residents from the Chyhyryn region south of Kyiv protested outside the headquarters of Myronivsky Hliboproduct (MHP), the Ukrainian agribusiness conglomerate owned by one of the country’s richest billionaires.
Development banks under pressure over support for Ukrainian agribusiness firm
May 12, 2016
Campaigners are today challenging the investment of public funds in a poultry farming giant, which they say is causing environmental damage to rural communities in Ukraine.
The problems with industrial chicken producer MHP’s expansion in Ukraine
May 11, 2016
MHP is at the centre of concern for local communities and civil society organisations in Ukraine, because of the way the company engages stakeholders, acquires land, and impacts the environment, water and the local economic development. Since 2010 the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has approved three loans for MHP, totalling USD 205 million. Whether or not the company is in compliance with Ukrainian law, local people think they are not adequately protected and do not have an equal voice against a large corporation if it decides to begin construction.
Problematic expansion of agribusiness giant MHP in Ukraine with EBRD support
February 1, 2016
Myronivsky Hliboproduct PJSC, also known as MHP, is a long-term client of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Following loands in 2013 and 2010, the EBRD approved a USD 85 million loan on 28 October 2015 to support MHP’s agricultural working capital needs. While the agricultural sector is widely viewed as one of the engines of the Ukrainian economy, MHP’s operations are having a range of negative impacts on local communities.
Foul play: development banks condone top Ukrainian poultry producer’s abuses
December 17, 2015
A closer look at Europe’s recent investments in Ukraine’s agriculture sector shows that the failure to apply high transparency standards and social safeguards poses not only business risks but also undermines Ukraine’s democratisation process.
Environmental organizations raise stink over MHP’s poultry farm
September 22, 2015
There’s an ill wind blowing in Vinnytsa Oblast, and if one of Ukraine’s biggest agriculture companies keeps growing, things could get worse for the people living nearby, environmental, corporate and bank watchdog organizations from the European Union and Ukraine say. MyronivskyHliboproduct (MHP), which runs the biggest poultry farm in Europe near the village of Ladyzhyn southeast of Vinnytsa, was the subject of two reports released this September after a fact-finding mission of six environmental watchdogs visited the area in May.
Images and graphs: Large-scale agribusiness in Ukraine and local communities
September 14, 2015
Ukraine’s agriculture was the only sector in the country to grow in 2014. International investors are happy to point this out – and the role they are playing in financing these investments. Our investigation, however, shows that cheap Ukrainian food products are coming at the expense of severe impacts on local communities.
Rural communities in Ukraine bearing the brunt of unchecked agribusiness expansion, say two new reports
September 14, 2015
Residents in Ukraine’s southwest are facing environmental decline, intimidation and deteriorating quality of life as a result of the rapid emergence of Europe’s largest poultry farm, finds a report released today by CEE Bankwatch Network. Owned by Mironivski Hliboproduct (MHP), Ukraine’s biggest poultry producer, the Vinnytsia project has been enjoying hefty support from Europe’s public financial institutes and the World Bank, and plans to double the facility’s size are only likely to exacerbate its social and environmental impacts, shows another report released today by the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO).
Black earth – Agribusiness in Ukraine and the marginalisation of rural communities
September 14, 2015
Given Ukraine’s abundant land resources and food production potential, modernisation of agriculture is necessary and industrialisation is inevitable. Yet, an investigation into the Vinnytsia poultry complex shows the negative side effects of large-scale industrialisation of meat production and sounds the alarm about the risks that agroholdings pose to communities.
Nederland sponsort Oekraïense plofkip
September 14, 2015
De grootste kippenproducent in Oekraïne, Myronivsky Hliboproduct (MHP), slacht jaarlijks naar schatting 332 miljoen kippen en staat op het punt de productie met 70% te verhogen. MHP krijgt daarbij ruim baan van de Oekraïense overheid, exporteert tegen gunstige voorwaarden naar Nederland en profiteert bovendien van een half miljard aan leningen van internationale ontwikkelingsbanken. Bij de schaalvergroting spelen ook Nederlandse banken en bedrijven een rol. Intussen ondervinden de bewoners in de omgeving van Europa’s grootste kippenstal steeds meer overlast van stank en zwaar verkeer en worden zij onder druk gezet om hun land te verpachten. Met het rapport Chicken Run heeft SOMO de bedrijfsstrategieën van MHP en de daaruit voortvloeiende impact op omliggende dorpen in kaart gebracht.
