World meat industry news

Cherkizovo Group, the largest vertically integrated meat and feed producer in Russia, has launched a new sow farm in the Lipetsk region. Igor Babaev, founder of Cherkizovo Group, and Oleg Korolev, head of administration of the Lipetsk region, both attended the opening.

This new facility will supply sows to Cherkizovo’s pork production facilities located in the Lipetsk and Voronezh regions. The sow farm’s weekly capacity is 11,600 sows of simultaneous placement and 7,000 weaned piglets. Once fully operational, the facility will boost production in the Group’s pork segment by 350,000 heads per annum. Total investment into the project amounted to RUB 1.3 billion.

The facility has been constructed according to the highest biosafety standards and state-of-the-art equipment, including a covered heated disinfectant barrier, has been installed at the site. The entire production process is fully isolated and both animals and feed are moved within the facility via special transfer points. Staff can move around inside the sow farm via walkways, without exiting the facility.

In addition to opening the new sow farm, Igor Babaev and Oleg Korolev also visited the Dankov meat processing plant, which is now fully operational following the 2015 renovation to increase its annual production capacity to 124,000 tonnes. A total of RUB 1.5 billion was invested into the facility.

Igor Babaev, founder of Cherkizovo Group, commented: “The opening of this new sow farm not only further strengthens our vertically integrated business model, but also boosts the local economy. The new facility will help increase Cherkizovo’s production in the Lipetsk region by 50 per cent and this will inevitably create new jobs for the region. Cherkizovo is the largest investor in the Lipetsk region and we look forward to maintaining our strong relationship in the region going forward.”