OREANDA-NEWS. May 15, 2014. Chairman of Cherkizovo Group Board of Directors Igor Babaev and Deputy Governor of Lipetsk Region Nikolai Tagintsev visited the Dankov Meat Processing Plant. During the tour, they decided to hold a higher level meeting in the near future concerning Cherkizovo Group’s investment activities in the region, which includes upgrading the meat processing plant.

“At this time, the socioeconomic development of Dankov District is directly dependent on attracting investors and improving the investment climate,” Mr. Tagintsev said. “The presence of a large company like Cherkizovo Group will contribute to solving a lot of social issues in the district, including the development of rural areas and increasing job creation.”

In turn, Mr. Babaev noted that: “The government of Lipetsk Region headed by Oleg Korolev is moving in the right direction by creating the most supportive climate for investments in the region’s agroindustrial complex directly related to the country’s food safety.”

Mr. Babaev and Mr. Tagintsev also inspected the site where construction of 56 bird houses under the Eletsprom project is nearing completion. More than 1 billion roubles have been invested in this project. Mr. Babaev informed the Deputy Governor that the birdhouses would start operating this summer.

Cherkizovo Group began construction of Europe’s largest full cycle integrated agroindustrial complex in 2011. It combines all production stages from feed and poultry production to processing and packaging finished products with capacity of 125,000 tonnes of poultry meat per year. The project also includes construction of a storage facility with the capacity of more than 460,000 tonnes, a pig slaughtering facility, a hatchery designed for laying 240 million eggs per year, and a waste management and recycling facility.

Construction of offices, infrastructure, and engineering structures, including storage facilities, residences for specialists, as well as a transport facility and a modern logistics centre for storage of up to 50,000 tonnes of frozen products is also planned under the project. More than 23.5 billion roubles are being invested in the project, and more than 5,000 jobs will be created.

Construction of the hatchery, feed mill, and bird houses in Dankov District is now almost complete. The complex is scheduled to reach full capacity by the end of 2015. Total investments in implementing the project exceed 2.8 billion roubles.