9 December 2014 – loading

It can be cold, very cold in December in Ukraine …. Snow, a deep, dark night, an industrial area somewhere on the outskirts of Tscherkasy belonging to a reliable partner of our old client, assigned as a point of transfer of goods, it is 9 December 2014.
And at last – we see the lights of some vehicles approaching. “The truck is coming, the truck is coming!!!” people gathered here are calling with excitement – yes, indeed this is our truck with our birds led by the car which had waited eight hours for it on the Kiev-Tscherkasy motorway – the last PS flock who will make it into the war zone of Donetsk.

But first, they must be loaded onto the trucks of PPR Sugresky, our old client in Ukraine as no European forwarding company wanted to officially cross the “non-existent border” between what people here call Big Ukraine and Small Ukraine (Donetsk People’s Republic – DPR).
Before the loading process can start, the state security alarmed by the customs arrives – all the boxes are searched for weapons (this is the time of strict security measures for the movement of people and goods between Ukraine and DPR). After four hours, the green light was given – the trucks could depart for Sugresky.



10 December 2014 – arrival

They arrived next day at the farm of PPR Sugresky; placed in cage system houses and reared under the experienced management of excellent poultry specialists, they started to produce hatching eggs picking 96%. As the price of table eggs exceeded in manifold the price of hatching eggs, some of the production was sold to retailers.
The production, as in any crisis region, was marked by a shortage of feed. There were some weeks when the flock was fed only on grains, but after the supply of PS feed stabilised, the birds were back to the technical standard in no time.

The management of Sugresky established good relationships with both sides of the frontlines, and to secure business as usual, they found out who to call before feed delivery time so no silo truck (see photo) would be wrongly considered to be a rocket launcher provoking artillery fire to attack the poultry houses.

LB Lite not “light” but strong

On a product list we call them “Lite” – LOHMANN BROWN LITE, but they should really be called “Hard and Strong” – a little like the people living there.

We wish our friends at PPR Sugresky all the best in their professional activities and private lives and honour the workers of Sugresky who were killed by stray bullets in 2015.

A story of excellent relationship

The story of Sugresky is a story of excellent relationships between the old Ukrainian franchise hatchery and LTZ, the story of the proud people of Ukraine who first rely on their own skills and ingenuity, and on the periphery there were some LOHMANN layers who demonstrated that they can deliver under all management, environmental and political conditions as well as LOHMANN TIERZUCHT does.

Marek Malkowski