Saying that packaging Ukrainian meat under the Perutnina Ptuj brand would amount to suicide - of Perutnina and the investment - Šišić stressed in an interview with Delo that MHP had paid EUR 240 million for Pertunina Ptuj and that it had bought it because of the latter's business model and not because of its own.

Perutnina is a vertically integrated company that controls the entire production chain, from the field to the fork, and respects the highest quality standards, he told the paper.

He said the Ukrainian poultry speculation was "spread by certain experts who made hasty conclusions, and by a part of the competition which had its own reasons".

According to Šišić, MHP is ready to invest in production capabilities, automation, and in increasing productivity, which would allow Perutnina to remain competitive on export markets.

In Slovenia, where investment will mostly focus on environmental protection and automation, it will be hard to increase the market share, which is why the chance to grow is seen in exports, said Šišić, while noting the "absurdity" of Pertunina's breeders having to wait three years for a license to expand.

A doubling of technological capabilities for production is planned in Croatia, production in Bosnia is meant to increase by 50%, while major investment that will allow Pertunina to remain the leading market player is also planned in Serbia. The plan for the Romanian subsidiary is to significantly increase the sale of meat, which is to be produced either in Slovenia or in another subsidiary.

At group level Pertunina produces around 85,000 tonnes of meat annually, 50,000 of which in Slovenia. The idea is to increase production to 120,000 tonnes in two to three years. MPH is to produce around 700,000 tonnes this year.

Commenting on a draft bill that would limit the farmland that can be leased from the Farmland and Forest Fund to 100 hectares, Šišić said Perutnina was presently using 4,000 of the fund's land to produce cereals which are sent to its feed plants. The feed is then sent to its breeders' farms that breed Slovenian chickens with Slovenian wheat and then return them to Perutnina for processing.

"Is this not a closed circle, the kind of vertical chain that provides added value in each production stage, and the self-sufficiency we keep talking about," Šišić wondered.