World meat industry news

One of Russia's largest meat producers Cherkizovo Group has announced it will invest up to 8 billion rubles ($119 million) in its enterprises in the Penza region in the next five years.

In the Penza region, Cherkizovo is the largest agricultural investor, Russian agency Prime reports.

The Cherkizovo founder Igor Babayev said during a press conference last week that the region is a strategic partner of the group.

"When we started working in the Russian agrarian sector, we went seriously to the Penza region, we managed to do a lot, but most importantly, we brought the process of creating pig farms to perfection ... I believe that what is being done now in the Penza region should be transferred to the scale of the whole country, "Babayev said.

"Cherkizovo is implementing a number of large-scale projects in the Penza region, the regional government is also investing in this - engineering infrastructure, gas, energy, and these efforts pay off, the funds are directed to where they are needed, "Ivan Belozertsev, the head of the region, said in a statement.

In the last 10 years, Cherkizovo's investments in plant growing, feed production, poultry farming, pig production and meat processing in the region of Penza amounted to nearly 10 billion rubles.

"As a result of which the whole production chain of the vertically integrated holding is fully represented here - from growing grain to meat processing," Cherkizovo's press release read.

Cherkizovo Group is one of the three leaders in the Russian markets of chicken meat, pork, meat processing products and is the largest producer of mixed fodders in Russia.