Major Ukrainian food exporter flips to feed a nation at war

Bloomberg

Ukrainian food conglomerate MHP SE built its business exporting grains and poultry to Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. War forced a pivot, and now the company supplies the Ukrainian army and delivers ready-to-eat chicken to civilians in bombed-out cities.
The shift shows how quickly Ukraine’s farming industry—a global heavyweight —flipped from feeding the world to feeding the nation. Russia’s invasion is displacing millions of people and stranding more without access to electricity, water and other essentials.
Even with the country’s damaged infrastructure and the challenges getting fuel and chicken feed, its agriculture sector is making efforts to keep food supplies afloat. MHP is boosting production at its poultry plants in the Vinnytsia, Cherkasy and Dnipro regions, trying to fill the gap created when competitors failed, MHP executive chairman John Rich said in an interview from Slovenia.
“We’ve been delivering the humanitarian aid to outside of cities so people can get access to it,” Rich said. “Ready-to-eat products are being distributed to areas where they can’t cook. You’ve got to feed children.”
The war is shocking commodities markets and spurring food prices higher as exports from the Black Sea region are disrupted. Ukraine is the world’s second-largest grains shipper and a major chicken seller. MHP produces as much as 900,000 tons of chicken a year, and about 750,000 tons of that comes from Ukraine. The Russian navy’s blockade of Ukraine’s ports is pushing up chicken prices in Brazil. Some Ukrainian agricultural companies are struggling to continue operations. Grain exporter and oilseed processor Kernel Holding SA invoked force majeure Tuesday, saying it can’t move goods abroad because of safety and security concerns.