Dutch animal feed company sending medicine, goods to Russian soldiers on Ukraine front
The Dutch animal feed company De Heus donated medicines and other goods to Russian soldiers at the front in Ukraine in December. The donations happened through a Russian subsidiary, which De Heus, owned by one of the richest families in the Netherlands, has not distanced itself from, the Volkskrant reports.
A video posted on social media in December shows two Russian volunteers explicitly thanking De Heus while showing a box of painkillers. The painkillers are part of “a huge box of goods” from the company to help Russian soldiers at the front, the volunteers said. Half of the donations would go to the 103rd mechanized infantry brigade in Donetsk, and the other half to the artillery division in Luhansk.
BN/De Stem journalist Dénis van Vliet noticed the video and reported on it on X last week. He also pointed out that De Heus has taken down a website that expressed support for Ukraine. According to the Volkskrant, this happened after De Heus was put on a Russian blacklist in December of companies that support Ukraine. The blacklist aimed to “systematically purge the domestic market of those who play a double game.”
A spokesperson for De Heus told the Volkskrant that the medicine donation was “a local action that we were not aware of and that did not have our approval.” He swore that “such actions will not be repeated.” About the website, the spokesperson said it was removed “for the safety of employees” in the Russian factory. De Heus is still active in Russia because of its “contribution to essential food chains,” the spokesperson said.
De Heus is a big player in the Dutch agricultural economy. The company is owned by the family of the same name, which is one of the richest families in the Netherlands with an estimated fortune of 1.9 billion euros, according to Quote. The family supported the massive farmers’ protests against the nitrogen policy in 2022.
In Russia, De Heus has a majority stake in a joint venture with the Russian company MKorma, named PJSC De Heus. Unlike other companies that have more name recognition and are, therefore, more vulnerable to consumer boycotts, De Heus has not scaled down its Russian activities in recent years. Heineken and Unilever, for example, both sold their Russian subsidiaries to a Russian party at a loss of hundreds of millions of euros.
The De Heus spokesperson told the Volkskrant that the company has been trying for “a year and a half” to reduce its stake in the joint venture by transferring shares. But this is a “very complex” process because the government must give permission, the spokesperson said.
