OREANDA-NEWS. July 11, 2013. The grand opening of Zarechnaya poultry production facility of Vasilievsky Poultry Factory was held following modernization.

Vasilievsky Poultry Factory is part of Cherkizovo Group, which bought the idle Zarechnaya Poultry Factory in 2010 under a project to increase production capacity in the Penza poultry production cluster.

The company invested more than 900 million rubles in modernizing the facility, renovated 41 bird houses with 38,000 poultry places, and also restored the mature chicken slaughtering facility. More than 107 jobs have been created at Zarechnaya to date, and the facility’s production capacity is more than 23,500 tonnes live weight of poultry meat per year.

“The launch of the modernized facility will not only substantially increase the capacity of Vasilievsky Poultry Factory, which is now more than 110,000 tonnes live weight per year, but will also increase loading of the slaughtering facility,” said Dmitry Reznichenko, Chief Operating Officer of OJSC Vasilievsky Poultry Factory. “Consumption of poultry meat in Russia is growing year by year, and Penza Region is no exception. In an effort to meet the constantly increasing demand for high-quality locally produced poultry meat in Penza Region, we are increasing production capacity of this meat.”

In turn, the first deputy Minister of Penza Region, Sergey Churakov, noted that the project to increase capacity at Vasilievsky Poultry Factory would help make Penza Region one of the leading poultry meat producers in Volga Federal District.

Along with opening the modernized facility, the first deputy Minister also learned about the unique freeze drying process that will be extensively used at Vasilievsky Poultry Factory.

“The new process will allow us to increase product storage life to 6 months while preserving all of the product’s nutrients and freshness. Use of the freeze drying process will also enable us to export the factory’s products to neighboring countries and the CIS,” Deputy Head of Poultry Division Dmitry Aveltsov said.

OJSC Vasilievsky Poultry Factory is one of the largest agroindustrial facilities in Volga Region. The factory was founded in 1974, and became part of OJSC Cherkizovo Group in 1999. The facility produces broiler meat and hatching eggs at 19 sites in 8 of the region’s districts.

All facilities of Vasilievsky Poultry Factory are on local sites. On the one hand, this structure allows continuous production, while maintaining the mandatory clear zone between poultry of different age groups, and on the other hand, prevents any spread of infection.

The facility is also notable for its four parent stock sites, which combined with stringent sanitary and veterinary monitoring, provide it with its own guaranteed supply of high-yield, clean eggs for broiler production.