$474 million Married Interests: agribusiness
Yevhen Sihal’s chicken business took such a hard hit during the global financial crisis that he didn’t make Ukraine’s 50 richest list in 2008.
But he’s back again, and his eyes are set on the world’s largest market in the European Union.
Sihal’s Havrylivski Kurchata brand of chickens received a clean bill of health this year from a European Commission inspection body.
Now the Ukrainian government has to catch up by enacting and enforcing veterinary legislation that meets EU-import standards.
Sihal is in a tough line of business. Ukrainian poultry farms aren’t protected by quotas and customs duties, which saw U.S. chicken imports to the country increase 2.5 times in 2009.
This is because former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko allowed cheap chicken imports into the country to halt rising prices in summer 2008.
Sihal appears to have weathered the storm highlighted by the opening of 600 franchises during the last two years. He today controls a large chunk of the poultry market – around 17 percent – second only to Ihor Kosiuk’s Mironovsky Khlib Product, his main rival, which has also passed European Commission export-readiness inspections.
Set up in 1998 Sihal’s Agromars has 13 breeding farms with about one million breeding chickens and 37 broiler farms with nine million broiler chickens.
It also operates a slaughtering and poultry processing facility and has two mixed fodder factories.
Sihal was recently expelled from the opposition Yulia Tymoshenko faction in parliament after voting in favor of the controversial tax code in parliament.
