By laying a ceremonial foundation stone for the new poultry production complex of the Cherkizovo group (Elets, Russia), the Head of the Lipetsk regional administration, Oleg Korolev, Cherkizovo Group Chairman, Igor Babaev and CEO of Cherkizovo, Sergey Mikhailov started the largest agro-industrial project in Russia.
The poultry production and processing area will include the following facilities: an incubation site with capacity of 160million incubation eggs per year; 5 broiler sites with capacity of 10million poultry places; 4 parent stock and reproduction flock sites for 900,000 heads; a slaughtering and processing complex with capacity of 24,000 units per hour; a waste treatment and processing complex; multifunctional treatment and purifying facilities; a fodder complex with a capacity of 90t per hour, which will include storage facilities for 300,000t of grain and an oil processing complex (this will provide an increase in fodder output for the group of approximately 512,000t per year and will increase storage capacity up to approximately 800,000t). The project also includes offices, infrastructure and engineering facilities, including storage and warehouse facilities, housing and a logistics facility with capacity to store up to 50,000t of frozen products. Production is expected to start in 2013 and the site aims to operate at full capacity by the end of 2015. The total investment in the project will be $685million. Of that amount, 80% is loan funds, provided by Gazprombank. Sergey Mikhailov, CEO of Cherkizovo Group said: "By launching this project, we enter a new level of production quality."