Cherkizovo Sets Higher Production Target for This Year

The largest vertically integrated meat producer in Russia, Cherkizovo, has said it plans to produce 1.1 million tons of meat in live weight in 2019, which is 19% higher than the previous year, Agroinvestitor reports.

The company said it would become the first meat producer in the post-Soviet era with a production performance exceeding one million tons per year. The main growth in production is expected in its broiler meat segment, where it planned to increase output from 626,000t in 2018 to 769,000t in 2019, the company said.

The target should be achievable, given Cherkizovo’s recent acquisitions of Altai Broiler and Belaya Ptitsa, it added. Cherkizovo purchased Altai Broiler for around $70 million and Kursk-based producer Belaya Ptitsa for $100 million, with both deals completed in late 2018.

Altai Broiler’s production capacity is around 60,000 tons of broiler meat per year, and Cherkizovo said it planned to increase that figure to 100,000 tons per year over the next few years. The company added that this acquisition was important to the company as it would enable it to strengthen its position in Siberia.

Belaya Ptitsa owns a production complex designed for 120,000 tons of broiler meat per year in Kursk Oblast. The company had stopped operating due to the financial difficulties, but Cherkizovo said that, following the acquisition, it planned to restart production within the first quarter of 2019.

In the pork sector, Cherkizovo was aiming to boost production from 250,000 tons in 2018 to 284,000 tons in 2019.

This growth forecast was attributed primarily to an increase in production at its farms in Voronezh Oblast, Lipetsk Oblast and Penza Oblast, all located in Central Russia. Earlier, Cherkizovo had announced plans to gradually increase pork production in this part of the country.