September 17, 2007

Agrika plans to account for 15 percent of Russian pedigree eggs market

Russia's Agrika Produkty Pitania (Agrika Foodstuffs), with the support of the Bashkortostan government, is initiating a poultry breeding complex to produce pedigree eggs that would help the company capture more of the Russian poultry market. 

Agrika's subsidiary, Bashkir Pedigree Poultry Farming, plans to launch a parent hatchery, a mixed fodder plant, a pedigree growing unit with a capacity of 25 million broiler eggs unit to be completed by the end of next year.

The project would be implemented with the participation of Dutch breeding company Hybro B.V./Hendrix Genetics B.V.

According to Agrika general director Dmitry Kolokatov, Russian poultry meat producers cannot meet in full their requirements for pedigree eggs and therefore, strongly depend on imports.

By raising output to 3 million one-day parent chickens per year, the company plans to supply 15 percent of the Russian market.

The Agrika group of enterprises include companies engaged in extensive processing of meat and poultry as well as frozen products, compound feed and protein/vitamin mix.

The group derives 35 percent of revenue from products such as compound feed, protein/vitamin mix and soy products.