Mega loans to Ukrainian factory-farm MHP halted by The Netherlands
A European mega loan to Ukrainian factory-farmed chicken giant MHP will likely not happen, thanks to efforts of the Dutch Party for the Animals (PvdD). The company should also not call on the nationally-financed European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) for future funding, as far as the Netherlands is concerned. This was unanimously decided by the Dutch House of Representatives last week, following a motion by the Party for the Animals. A great success for the animals and for European agriculture.
Last week, the EBRD was supposed to take a decision on a credit application of 100 million euros by MHP. However, that decision has been postponed, and it is highly unlikely that MHP will get a loan from the EBRD in the future, now the Party for the Animals has urged the Netherlands to actively resist any loans to MHP.
"The use of Dutch tax money for the Ukrainian livestock sector is unfathomable," says PftA MP Esther Ouwehand. “It concerns a massive loan, money that was going to be used to finance gigantic chicken factory farms in Ukraine as well as in Slovenia, resulting in MHP’s chicken meat flooding the European market. We are pleased that from now on, the Netherlands will not only vote against these kinds of loans, but it will also be forced to actively persuade other countries to do the same.”
MHP is by far the largest chicken meat producer in Ukraine. The company’s business strategy is highly expansionary and aggressive: if its plans for expansion continue, by 2023 the company will have produced a quantity of chicken meat similar to that of the entire Dutch chicken meat sector combined.
In the last few years, the export of Ukrainian chicken meat to the European market has increased dramatically. One of the reasons for this is that MHP has conveniently used a back door in the association agreement between the EU and Ukraine. Instead of closing that back door, the European Commission has decided to formalise it, and add the import of the chicken meat to the existing chicken meat quota – something the Party for the Animals has also successfully opposed.