MHP is a group of food & culinary companies with a significant number of its own businesses in Ukraine and Southeast Europe, where it operates, among others, under the name of its subsidiary Perutnina Ptuj. Other MHP activities include a slaughterhouse in the Netherlands, a joint venture in Saudi Arabia, and distribution offices in the Middle East and the United Kingdom. MHP is a corporation with a turnover of more than €2.72 billion and 32,000 employees worldwide.
The Spanish UVESA group was founded sixty years ago as a small meat manufacturer, and over the years, through mergers and acquisitions, has become one of the major players in the Spanish food chain. The company specializes (like MHP) in the poultry and pork industries and also has its own animal feed division. The Spanish pork sector has grown in recent years to become the largest international player, ranking in the top five alongside the United States, Canada, Denmark, and Germany.
MHP Ukraine was the largest poultry producer in Europe for the second consecutive year in 2023; it exports up to 60% of its total poultry products to more than 70 countries worldwide. In 2019 (before the outbreak of the Russian aggression war against Ukraine), the Group already announced its strategic transformation to become a global food corporation.
All production standards of MHP Ukraine have been aligned over recent years with the strictest EU guidelines for poultry production. Due to the prospective European Union membership, intensive discussions have been held this year between the EU and Ukrainian businesses. The goal is to prepare these corporations for EU criteria concerning, among other things, food safety.
Former EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski said last week that Ukraine can only become an EU member if special rules are drawn up for the export of Ukrainian agricultural and food products. “Imports must be controlled,” he said in an interview with the Polish agricultural magazine Farmer.pl.
Wojciechowski is convinced that the European Commission must help Ukraine regain its traditional export markets in Asia and Africa. “If Ukraine exports 80% of its products to Asian and African countries, there will be no problems in Europe because that was already the case before 2022. If this export is redirected to Europe, then there will be a problem,” Wojciechowski said.
According to him, the problem can be addressed by introducing supporting measures to bring Ukraine back to the markets where it was previously present and from which it was displaced by the crisis. If this is facilitated, there will be no major problems in Europe.