Cherkizovo opens new hatchery in Russia

Russia-based Cherkizovo, which is involved in meat processing, poultry and pork operations, has opened a new RUR600m ($19m) hatchery as part of its capacity expansion in Penza, Russia.

According to the company, the new hatchery features state-of-the-art equipment with the latest technological processes and enables 105 million eggs to be incubated per year.

The project also includes the construction of a modern slaughtering facility with an hourly capacity of up to 8,000 heads, in addition to the existing slaughtering facility, which has an hourly capacity of 6,000 heads.

The new slaughtering facility will be launched by the end of 2011.

In 2010, the Penza poultry cluster had a capacity of approximately 61,500t of live weight poultry meat; the completion of this project will see that rise to 140,000t by 2013.

Cherkizovo CEO Sergey Mikhailov said that by building facilities of this size, the company will benefit from economies of scale, delivering efficiency benefits to the customers.

"At the same time, these investments position the business well for growth over the long term," he added.