Ukraine Horse Breeding intends to step up horse sales

MOSCOW. Feb 15 (Interfax) - The Ukrainian state company Ukraine Horse Breeding will expand the sales of horses in Ukraine and outside the country and will focus on popularizing the Ukrainian horse breeding industry, Ukrainian media reported with reference to the State Property Fund's social media post.

"It's important that the state company's staff understands clearly that, in order to develop, they need to employ new modern approaches toward the keeping and breeding of stud horses and building an efficient business model. This is precisely why the enterprise is actively developing," State Property Fund Chairman Vitaly Koval said.

Ukraine Horse Breeding currently incorporates 10 stud farms, three horse breeding centers, and a hippodrome. The overall number of horses kept there is 1,717. Four stud farms keeping 561 horses are located in an area not controlled by Kiev. The company is breeding five horse breeds, namely, the Ukrainian Riding Horse, the Thoroughbred, the Novoolexandrian Draught, the Orlov Trotter, and the Prize Trotter, the fund said.

"Horses bred by the company enjoy demand both in Ukraine and outside it. We are popularizing the Ukrainian Riding Horse on the sports market. The Novoolexandrian Draught is in demand with private owners. We should not only preserve all our horse breeding achievements, including as regards riding, trotter, and draft breeds, but also make them competitive on international markets and at auctions," Lesya Tkachenko, chief of the Ukraine Horse Breeding operational department, said.

As reported, the Ukrainian government in December 2010 reorganized state-owned horse breeding enterprises not subject to privatization into the Ukraine Horse Breeding state enterprise. Before the crisis, it had 54,100 hectares of farmlands, including 43,500 hectares of arable land, in permanent use.

The Ukraine Horse Breeding state enterprise incorporated Dnepropetrovsk Stud Farm No. 65, Zaporozhye Stud Farm No. 86, Alexandria Stud Farm No. 174, Onufrievka Stud Farm No. 175, Limarovka Stud Farm No. 61, Derkul Stud Farm No. 63, Novoalexandrovka Stud Farm No. 64, Dibrovka Stud Farm No. 62, Lozovaya Stud Farm No. 124, the Odessa State Agricultural Hippodrome, and the Kiev regional breeding enterprise.

Apart from these, the new enterprise included Strelets Stud Farm No. 60, the Southern Stud Farm (Yuzhkonetsentr), the Western State Regional Horse Breeding Center, the Olimpiisky state stud farm, the Lvov Hippodrome, the Mirogoshcha State Hippodrome, and the Yagolnitsa Stud Farm.