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Some Ukrainian farmers are donating their pigs to be butchered by volunteers in local villages, according to farmer Maksym Kryvonis.
Together with farmers, the volunteers are cooking the pigmeat and packing it into jam jars.
The jars are then being sent to feed the army at the frontline.
The Ukrainian pig and tillage farmer described how he and other farmers in his area can’t get factory-ready pigs to factories and are instead donating them as part of “my country’s [war] effort”.
Jars
Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal from his farm which is 80km north of the port city Odessa, Kryvonis said: “Pigs go to local villages for butcher[ing] by volunteers.
“We send them in jars to the army and cities.”
I am ready to fight
He explained that he doesn’t have enough feed to continue to feed factory-ready pigs and said it is the “right thing to do” to use the meat to feed Ukrainian soldiers.
Anger
Kryvonis described how farmers in his area “have anger” towards invading Russian forces.
He said: “[The] Russians are getting closer. I am ready to fight. My family will.”
Speaking about farmers in southeast Ukraine where “Russia is already there”, he explained that those he has spoken to are fearful their livestock will be taken to feed the “enemy army”.
We have made road blocks all over the country. My road has one
He said many cattle and sheep farmers are locking their livestock indoors to prevent them being “killed” by Russian forces.
Kryvonis said farmers are “doing everything” they can to support Ukraine’s resistance.
“We have made road blocks all over the country. My road has one and so [does] my neighbour.”
On Sunday, in a bid to protect domestic supply, Ukrainian prime minister Denys Shmyhal said that his government had decided to suspend the export of some farm produce.
The export of buckwheat, millet, oats, salt and sugar have been suspended completely, according to reports from Ukrainian media
It is understood that special licences are now needed to export five major commodities, including wheat, sunflower oil, corn, chicken eggs and poultry meat.
The export of buckwheat, millet, oats, salt and sugar have been suspended completely, according to reports from Ukrainian media. They also report that export shipments of live cattle, frozen beef and meat offal are also now prohibited.
Myronivsky Hliboproduct (MHP), the largest chicken producer in Ukraine, said it has paused its chicken exports due to “logistical constraints” caused by the war.
MHP said it is “ready to hand over [its chicken] products free of charge to those who need it most: first of all, to the armed forces of Ukraine, the territorial defence, hospitals and displaced persons”.
Railways
In a bid to allow seed and market access for tillage farmers, state-operated Ukrainian Railways has said it is “ready to organise agricultural products delivery by rail urgently” in order to “prevent the global food crisis”.
The company said: “The logistics of grain delivery to the border with Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland are already being worked out, from where the grain will be delivered to ports and logistics hubs of European countries.”
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