Cherkizovo opens poultry slaughtering facility in Russia

 

Russian meat producer Cherkizovo has opened a $42.5m slaughtering facility in Penza, Russia, as part of an investment programme with the aim of increasing production capacity.

According to the company, the facility has a capacity of 8,000 heads an hour, with all production lines controlled automatically through a centralised computer, while the quality control is managed through specialist video monitoring equipment.

The facility includes the Petelino Trading House, which facilitates the sale of chilled and frozen poultry products to the Volga federal district and other regions of Russia.

Cherkizovo CEO Sergey Mikhailov said the opening of the new facility in Penza supports the group’s strategy to deliver increased capacity, as well as the highest quality product for its customers.

"The facility is an important part of Cherkizovo’s ongoing investment programme that will see a significant increase in both the production capacity and efficiency of the Penza poultry cluster over the next two years," Mikhailov added.

As a part of the Penza investment programme, the company recently opened a $19m hatchery with a capacity of 105 million eggs a year and is constructing a fodder factory with a storage capacity of 300,000t a year.

The projects are expected to increase annual capacity of Penza cluster from the 61,500t of live weight poultry meat in 2010 to 140,000t in the next two years.

Earlier in November 2011, the company commenced production at its three greenfield pork farms in the Tambov, Voronezh and Lipetsk regions in Central Russia.

The integrated multisite complexes can accommodate 4,800 sows and each complex has an estimated capacity of 12,500t of live-weight pork a year.

Cherkizovo was formed through the merger of the Cherkizovsky agro-industrial group and the Michailovsky agro-industrial group in 2005 and produces feed, works in the sectors of breeding, meat processing and distribution and has three operating divisions: meat processing, poultry and pork.