World meat industry news

Cherkizovo Group (Petelinka, Kurinoe Tsarstvo and Pava-Pava brands) optimizes health and safety (H&S) processes and streamlines the corporate safety culture. In 1H 2019, the Company reduced the number of workplace accidents dramatically.

In 6M 2019, Cherkizovo Group succeeded in decreasing the number of accidents due to falls by 66% and due to animal bites by 100%. We also managed to reduce injuries resulting from making disinfectant solutions by 100%, from foreign objects in the eye by 100%, from car accidents by 28%, from cuts by 78%, and those suffered during repairs by 33%.

By the end of August 2019, the Group will assess occupational risks related to its production operations. Following the exercise, we will amend our technical and H&S instructions as necessary, make sure that employees use the right protective equipment, and train them to perform operations correctly. All these initiatives are slated for 2020. The next step will be to analyse what risks the Company can manage and those it cannot.

Last year, in line with the audit program, we launched a comprehensive compliance audit exercise to find out if the Group’s facilities comply with the applicable laws. We identified the range of criteria to be met as per the requirements set out in regulations and federal laws. Now, the heads of our business units can use them to detect the requirements that are not complied with and register all instances of non-compliance. As of June 2019, 70% of all the criteria were met.

We have kicked off the program investigating microtrauma injuries across all our business units It registers all visits to first aid rooms, uses of first aid kits, and sick notes. Managing this category of injuries is essential to preventing registered injuries. The more people report such injuries, the faster will be our response and action to improve the Company's working environment and workplaces.

This year, Cherkizovo Group has also embarked on a number of projects as part of its environmental safety commitment. The Cherkizovsky Meat Processing Plant in the Lipetsk Region saw the launch of the treatment facilities upgrade project. This helped minimize offensive odours the residents of Dankov had been suffering from. We had to do a full clean-up of the treatment facilities, upgrade the equipment, and automate the treatment technology. We are gearing up for the installation of an additional filtration-based air treatment system. Besides, we took steps to reduce pollutant volumes in the plant’s incoming effluent stream. To improve living conditions of people residing close to the plant, the management decided to install a wet barrier system around it. It is a system of nozzles located along the plant’s perimeter: they feed and vaporize aromatized water thus creating a barrier for dust and odours.