The trade unionist claims that Al Dahra is shutting down the farms and possibly the clover factory
The Al Dahra company, owner of the Belgrade-based PKB, has shut down several cow, beef and sheep farms, and the closure of the clover processing factory is not excluded, said the secretary of the Independent Agricultural Union of Serbia, Milisav Đorđević.
He told Beta that there are no more cow farms in Glogonjski Rit, Padinska Skela and Dunavac, a pig and beef farm in Besni Fok and a sheep farm in Surčin.
“Since Al Dahra bought PKB, the number of cows has decreased from about 8,000 to about 3,500, and with the closure of the sheep farm, those animals are no longer bred in that agricultural combine,” said Đorđević and added that there is also unofficial talk of closing down the factory. for processing clover (alfalfa).
The number of workers in PKB has been reduced from around 1,700 to around 600 since Al Dahra became the owner.
Al Dahre’s website says it is a “prominent leader in agribusiness”, based in Abu Dhabi, specializing in the areas of cultivation, production and trading of animal feed, as well as staples such as rice, flour, fruit and vegetables, and livestock farms they don’t mention.
What did they get for 121 million euros?
In October 2018, Al Dahra from the United Arab Emirates bought the assets of PKB Corporation for about 121 million euros, although the book value was 227 million.
For 121 million euros, it bought 16,785 hectares of agricultural land, then a fund of about 17,000 head of cattle, machinery and stocks of spare parts. The same price also included two separate companies, a laboratory for microbiological and chemical tests and a veterinary service.
According to the purchase agreement, PKB Al Dahra had the right to annually sell ten percent of the land or about 1,700 hectares for the first three years without the consent of the competent ministry.
During the purchase of the largest domestic agricultural combine, the owners of Al Dahra announced that in the next three years they will invest 30 million euros in the improvement of PKB’s operations, further development of the irrigation system and modernization of milk production capacity. In addition, Al Dahra planned to invest an additional 15 million euros.
When the first farm was closed in 2021, the Independent Agricultural Union of Serbia indicated that it feared that Al Dahra would shut down livestock production because it had committed to keep it for three years, which expired at the end of that year, in the purchase contract.
Source: Beta
Photo: Unsplash, Beta
Source: bizlife.rs
