In 2023, Margarita Kozachenko, a resident of Kyiv, started her own quail farming business in her native village of Vovnianka in Poltava region. A stylist and makeup artist with a high level of English, the owner of a beauty salon in Kyiv, who has traveled to 36 countries with her development and training programs, is now creating a quail business in Vovnianka village. In a year, the flock has expanded to 3,000.
"I made my first quail cage based on my own drawings overnight," says Margarita Kozachenko, "Later on, I was helped by grant competitions, which I won several times and thus expanded the capacity of my business.
Thus, winning the Do Your Own business idea competition from the MHP-Hromada Charitable Foundation fulfilled her goal of processing quail feed and preserving the finished product. For 100 thousand UAH of grant funds, Margarita purchased a pellet mill, a mill, a freezer, an industrial meat grinder and an aviary for poultry.
The farm's products include milk quail meat, eggs, stew, pate, etc. When she was in France, the chef of a local restaurant shared a recipe for such delicacies as smoked and pickled quail eggs. From now on, Maryna Kozachenko makes the same in Vovnianka.
To stand out in the market, Margarita emphasizes the environmental standard of her products. To do this, she feeds her quails environmentally friendly feed without additives. She drinks the quail with water diluted with honey. Among the various breeds of quail is the American Celadon, which Marharyta brought from France, laying blue eggs that doctors recommend for people with various types of allergies, as they do not contain dangerous allergens.
"My first customers were my clients from the beauty industry. I remember that there were so many first orders that I couldn't satisfy everyone," Margarita recalls.
To diversify her risks, Margarita Kozachenko is learning to drive a combine harvester. This will allow her to quickly harvest crops and, accordingly, poultry feed.
According to Oleksandr Pakholyuk, director of the MHP-Hromada Charitable Foundation, such projects in the Do Your Own competition always have a high chance of winning, because people have a goal and clearly understand the steps needed to achieve it.
"When you put a piece of your heart into a project, it's already a victory, because such a business will live on and scale," comments Oleksandr Pakholyuk. - And the community will develop along with it. And not only through local budget revenues and new jobs. But also due to the emergence of conscious entrepreneurs who unite around them, unite and demonstrate an example of resilience.