World meat industry news

Produkty Pitania, one of the largest producers of frozen convenience foods in Russia, has launched operations at its new hatchery in Kaliningrad, Russia.

 The investment in its new facility amounted to about 700 million rubles ($11 million) and has a production capacity of 45 million eggs per year, according to local media.

The incubator and poultry station was built from scratch on an area of ​​19 thousand square meters. The company expects to increase its production volume of poultry meat by 10 thousand tons, up to 36 tons per year.

Currently, 25 thousand tons of poultry meat is produced in the Kaliningrad region, supplying the domestic demand by up to 90%.

"To meet the needs of meat processors, imported and Russian raw materials are used, the volume of import of which is 69 thousand tons. We have the opportunity to increase production by 60 thousand tons, replacing imported raw materials," said the Russian Minister of Agriculture, Natalia Shevtsova.

"The Kaliningrad region processes and supplies to the territory of other Russian regions, to Kazakhstan, Belarus about 50 thousand tons of ready-to-eat and semi-finished products from poultry meat. Therefore, the development of the poultry industry is very important for us," Mrs. Shevtsova added.

The holding plans to further increase production volumes. Already in 2019, the volumes will amount to 50 thousand tons of poultry meat. In the medium term, the group will implement the second stage of investments, which includes the construction of additional facilities and a feed mill.