March 29, 2007

Russia's Euroservice Group to invest US$258 million in agricultural production

Russian agricultural producer Euroservice Group plans to invest US$258 million in agricultural production in 2007, of which 25 percent will be its own funds and the rest will be borrowed funds, the group's General Director Dmitry Astakhov told reporters Wednesday (Mar 28), the Prime Tass news agency reports.

Of the total, Euroservice will invest US$136 million in the construction of pork and turkey plants in the Kursk Region. The annual output of each plant will be 27,000 tonnes of meat and will be doubled in three years after the launch of the plants.

The rest of the funds will be spent on purchases of agricultural equipment and on upgrading sugar refineries and meat plants.

St Petersburg-based Euroservice Group, established in 1991, focuses on imports of raw sugar and production of white sugar, meat imports, grain processing, production of dairy products, planting of sugar beet and grain and livestock farming.

Euroservice expects its consolidated net profit in 2007 to increase 40 percent on the year to US$75 million, Astakhov said.

The group's revenue is expected to increase 14 percent on the year to US$1.255 billion in 2007.