January 23, 2013

An investment worth RUB8 billion (US$265 million) will be put in by German meat company, Tönnies, for the construction of a pork processing plant in the Khokholsky district of Russia's Voronezh region.

This was announced by Michael Fritzsch, head of Tönnies Russian division, at the exhibition "Green Week - 2013" in Berlin.

According to Fritzsch, the construction of the plant is scheduled to begin in 2013. The plant will consist of five modules. The first is expected to be launched before the end of 2014 with a capacity to process 300 pigs per hour (or 5,000 pigs per day if facility operates on a two shift basis). The total amount of investment in the first module is estimated at EUR45 million (US$60 million).

The plant will be one of the most modern meat processing plants in Europe, Fritzsch added, and it will produce chilled packaged pork, demand for which is growing in Russia in recent years.

To ensure the new plant will have sufficient raw materials the company has established a complex of pork farms in the two regions of Voronezh and Belgorod. Meaning that, in Belgorod the company already owns five pig farms of 2,500 sows. In the development of production in this area the company has already invested about EUR200 million (US$266 million) and in 2013 Tonnies plans to build three more farms with the additional investments.

In addition, Tonnies plans to create a breeding and genetic centre and to construct a feed mill in the Voronezh region to ensure the pig farms have sufficient feed supply.