Source: Tom Johnston, MEATINGPLACE, 11/29/11

Cherkizovo said late last week it has opened a new $42.5 million poultry processing plant in the Russian city of Penza.
Equipped with state-of-the-art equipment including automated production lines, the plant has an hourly capacity of 8,000 head. The Penza complex produced some 61,500 metric tons of poultry meat in 2010, and the expansion will more than double that number by 2013.

Also part of the company’s goal to increase capacity in Penza, Cherkizovo recently opened Russia’s largest hatchery, with an annual capacity of 105 million eggs.

“The opening of this new facility in Penza today (Nov. 24) represents further progress against the [company’s] strategy of investing to deliver increased capacity, as well as the highest quality product for our customers,” Cherkizovo CEO Sergey Mikhailov said in a news release.

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