Miratorg now McDonald's beef supplier

In a landmark deal, McDonald's will receive its beef supply from Miratorg's facilities in the Bryansk and Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia.

While the recent agreement marked a momentous progress for Miratorg, both the Russian agricultural company and McDonald's remained mummed about the size of the contract or volume of beef to be supplied.

"We have been working with McDonald's for some time, supplying chicken nuggets and patties for burgers. Now they will use our beef for the production of those patties", said Miratorg's president, Viktor Linnik.

He went further to pledge that the company's animals will be raised "without hormones and growth stimulants, only (on) natural feed".

Currently, 250,000 head of Aberdeen Angus cattle are reared at the new Bryansk and Kaliningrad Oblast-based beef 'cluster'.

The Miratorg-McDonald's deal will also contribute to McDonald's expansion in Siberia this year. 40 outlets are expected to be launched in the region, according to Khamzat Khasbulatov, the general president of McDonald's in Russia and Central Europe.

"…we plan to launch new restaurants in Novosibirsk and Omsk in 2015. We are also considering the cities of Tomsk, Kemerovo and Novokuznetsk," Khasbulatov added, revealing that this year's investment would reach around US$100 million.

Experts considered the Miratorg-McDonald's deal to be a sign of thawing relations between the famous fast-food chain and the Russian government. Earlier, McDonald's decision to shift out of Crimea during the Ukrainian territorial crisis was suspected to have sparked off large-scale inspections on its Russia-based outlets in mid-2014.

Furthermore, Miratorg is reportedly linked to the Putin administration which lent support to most of its projects.