Source:  John Strak, MEATINGPLACE.COM, 12/16/10

Cherkizovo, a major integrated meat producer in Russia, announced the official opening of the first line of its poultry breeding facility at its complex in Bryansk (about 250 miles south west of Moscow).

The first line of the poultry breeding facility consists of 26 bird houses, with a combined capacity of almost 880,000 broilers. Cherkizovo expects that the second line of the facility, incorporating an additional 26 bird houses, will be launched in spring of 2011. The total investment in building the first and second lines at this facility total approximately US $29.5 million.

The first stage of the Bryansk capacity-increase project involved building 11 additional bird houses at the existing poultry breeding facilities, and as previously announced, this has been completed. Further work currently underway includes the building of a new hatchery with an annual capacity of 66 million eggs. The company anticipates that this will be launched in April 2011.

Both stages of the Bryansk project are expected to be completed in 2012. The current capacity of the Bryansk poultry complex is 32,600 metric tons of live weight poultry meat, and after the completion of the entire expansion project this number will increase to 85,000 metric tons.

Cherkizovo is a public company traded on the London Stock Exchange.

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