Cargill opens new chicken processing facility in Russia

American agribusiness firm Cargill has opened a $40m chicken processing facility at its industrial complex in Efremov, Russia.

The facility, which is the company’s first primary chicken processing operation in Russia, will primarily supply Chicken McNuggets as well as other chicken products to McDonald’s restaurants in Russia.

Cargill Meats Europe general manager Jeremy Graves said that the company has had a strong relationship with McDonald’s for many years and Cargill is pleased to meet McDonald’s requirement to source chicken locally in Russia.

"Our processing plant and our joint efforts to build a sustainable local supply chain is yet another example of the ongoing collaboration between our two companies."

"The long term goal is that we will source the majority of our chicken in Russia and allow McDonald’s consumers to benefit from high quality products produced in country from Russian reared chickens," Graves added.

In order to establish a local chicken supply chain in Russia, Cargill has started developing local supply partnerships with Russian poultry rearers in order to ensure that the locally sourced chicken meets Cargill and McDonald’s food safety and welfare requirements.

McDonalds East Division and Russia supply chain and QA director Irina Korshunova said that from the time the company decided to enter the Russian market, it started developing a local producers’ network with Cargill.

"We are confident that the successful partnership between McDonald’s and Cargill will continue to thrive with poultry production in Russia," Korshunova added.

The facility, which employs more than 140 people, has the capacity to produce 18,000t of further processing chicken products per annum and complements Cargill’s existing businesses in the Efremov region.

Cargill’s operations in the Efremov region include a corn and wheat sweeteners facility, a vegetable oil refinery and bottling plant, a malt plant and an animal feed mill.

According to Cargill, its vegetable oil refinery already supplies oil to McDonald’s restaurants in Russia and now oil is also being used in the poultry production process for the nuggets and patties.

Cargill, which started its operations in Russia in 1991, employs about 2,700 people and to date it has invested nearly $900m in the Russian agricultural and food processing sectors.

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Image: The new facility will primarily supply Chicken McNuggets as well as other chicken products to McDonald’s restaurants in Russia. Photo courtesy of Evan-Amos.