Ukrainian poultry farmer reveals plan of huge investments in Slovakia

EU Poultry, a Slovak poultry processor owned by Ukrainian businessman Dmytro Borodavka, has rolled out plans to invest almost €50 million into capacity expansion in the country.

Under the draft submitted to the Slovak government, EU Poultry intends to build a new poultry processing plant near the village of Bošany in the Trenčín self-governing region in western Slovakia.

The project’s explanatory note revealed that “the facility will process poultry meat into finished semi-finished products and dispatch them to distribution centres”.

Construction is scheduled to begin in Q2 of 2025 and finished in Q3 of 2026.

The EU Poultry company has already become relatively well-known in Slovakia thanks to its business model, which involves importing poultry from Ukraine and its subsequent processing and packaging in Slovakia, Openiazoch, a Slovak news outlet, reported.

Meat processed in this way is sent to the European Union already with a Slovak label, the publication said, adding, “The fact is that this model works perfectly for Borodavka. EU Poultry has already become one of the largest food companies in the country during its short existence.”

According to official information, the company, which launched in 2017, became the seventh-largest food manufacturer in Slovakia last year.

EU Poultry’s revenue jumped from €16 million in 2017 to €160 million in 2023. In 2022, revenue amounted to €106 million, and in 2021, to €49 million. Last year was particularly successful for EU Poultry with the company having earned a net profit of €13.1 million, which was more than during the previous 6 years combined.

EU Poultry seems to be doing noticeably well compared to the entire Slovak poultry industry. Earlier this year, Hydina Slovensko, a prominent Slovak poultry processor, found itself on the verge of bankruptcy over a large debt of €23 million, and more farms reportedly are in peril over relatively poor financial performance, the Poultry Union of Slovakia reported.

New investments are a part of the common trend as Ukrainian poultry businesses have been gaining a foothold in Europe in recent decades, investing in the Netherlands, Slovakia, and the Balkans. For example, the Ukrainian company’s largest poultry processor, MHP, recently announced plans to build 3 chicken farms in Croatia by 2027, producing 6 million birds annually.

Tags: Ukraine, Poultry, poultry meat, poultry processor, invest, Slovakia, EU Poultry