UK aid for pig farmers on its way to Ukrainian farms

The UK’s National Pig Association (NPA) has sent a consignment of products to help Ukrainian pig farmers in the country’s war-hit pig producing regions, the organisation said in a news release.

The consignment was drawn together by NPA allied industry member Jonathan Bradley of Suffolk-based equipment supplier Genetics Solutions. This followed a call to arms by NPA vice chairman Hugh Crabtree to allied members after the NPA received an appeal for support from the Ukrainian pig industry.

With the help of a German company and a distributor in Ukraine, the consignment is travelling to Kyiv via Poland, and then to pig businesses in the Donbass region in the east, the Mykolaiv region in the south and in the west of the country.

Bradley thanked pig industry colleagues for their contributions in helping to secure the transport.

In the context of the massive problems facing Ukraine pig farmers, he described the donation as a ‘drop in the ocean to what is going to be needed short and long term’, but said he was pleased to contribute to directly to where aid was needed, and intended to do so again in the coming months.

A few weeks ago, the Association of Ukrainian pig breeders issued a plea for humanitarian assistance as the war generates an ‘enormous’ crisis for the country’s pig industry.

“The war, started by Russia has caused a crisis of enormous scale that threatens the food security, particularly the animal protein supply,” it said.

“The industry is currently under extreme circumstances that are far from routine: vast areas are in close proximity to war zones, numerous pig producers cannot sell pigs to be slaughtered, some of them are isolated by occupiers and have no choice but to euthanise the animals.”

“Traditional supply chains are broken: access to certain feed ingredients and veterinary products is limited due to problems with logistics as well as lack of revolving funds in sending collecting and shipping to Ukraine of any amount of products listed.”

The message to the global pork sector lists certain feed ingredients and veterinary products needed to maintain the country’s 3.6 million-strong pig herd.

The Pig Site

Tags: pig industry, NPA, pig farmers, Ukraine, UK, humanitarian assistance