Cherkizovo group to invest 18 bln rubles in Lipetsk region pork, poultry production

OJSC Cherkizovo Group, a major Russian meat producer, plans to invest 18 billion rubles over the next eight years to expand pork and poultry meat production in the Lipetsk region in the context of the Eletsprom special regional-level economic zone. 

The press service to the regional administration said that OJSC Kurinoye Tsarstvo (part of the Cherkizovo group) will become a member of the special economic zone, as its application was approved on Thursday at a meeting of the Eletsprom supervisory board. 

Carrying out the eight-year project will allow the group to increase the production of pork to 248,000 tonnes (live weight) and that of poultry meat to 230,000 tonnes. 

The project includes the building of livestock and poultry-rearing complexes, facilities for slaughtering and processing poultry, a compound feed plant, and companies to use and process waste products. 

The administration release says that almost 80% of the investment will be loan funds. Four thousand new jobs will be created. 

The Cherkizovo group already produces pork in Lipetsk region at Lipetskmyasoprom LLC, which is also part of the Eletsprom special economic zone. 

Cherkizovo Group, which was formed in 2005, encompasses seven meat- processing companies in the Moscow region, Penza, Ulyanovsk, Belgorod and Rostov regions and the Krasnodar territory, four hog complexes, two poultry farms and a compound feed plant. The company held an IPO on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) in May 2006 that raised $251 million. The group is controlled by Igor Babayev and members of his family.