OREANDA-NEWS. ABH Miratorg, the leading operator of Russian meat market, increased IAS-based earnings in 2013 by 11.5% comparing with 2012, up to record 53.7 bln rubles, thanks to sustained growth of key business areas and operating efficiency improvement.

The Holding has strengthened its position as Russia's leading pork producer ramping up meat production by 31.5% up to 356 ths tons in live weight and increased its share in country's industrial pork production to 13.7%.

Total foodstuff sales in 2013 grew by 18,6% to 434 ths tons with increased share of high added value products: chilled meat and semi-finished products in consumer package/ Miratorg extended product range and thereby strengthened its positions on Russian retail market.

Despite negative market trends related to fast growth of pork import and pork products price slump after Russia's accession to the WTO, as well as record prices for crop in the first half of 2013, the Holding's EBITDA for the accounting period amounted to 15.3 bln rubles which is equal to the figures of 2012 - 15.2 bln rubles. EBITDA margin in 2013 amounted to 28.45% against 31.55% the year before.

The Holding's net profit reduced by 14.1% to 9.6 bln rubles comparing with 11.2 bln rubles in 2012. Miratorg significantly improved its financial results in the second half of the year and sensibly balanced the negative effect of pricing environment of the first half of the year thanks to the startup of high-tech meat processing Case-Ready plant with the capacity of 72 ths. tons of chilled meat and semi-finished products in consumer package at the premises of SK Korocha facility located in Belgorod region.

Strong financial results that Holding showed under unfavorable environments and high market volatility are ensured by vertically-integrated business structure from crop growing to full distribution control, by increase of the processing depth and continuous work on the business efficiency improvement and cost saving.

In 2013 Miratorg continued strategic course on expansion of meat and sub-products export; application of advanced technologies, strict quality control and successive efforts directed to increase the processing depth guarantee competitiveness of the Holding's products on world markets.

In 2013 the Holding increased pork supplies to Hong Kong almost three times, up to 4.4 ths tons, and will continue to increase the supplies in that region in 2014. Miratorg is intended to expand its presence on Asian markets: Vietnam, China, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, which show great demand for wide range of pork products.

“Miratorg confirmed the validity of chosen strategy: the investments in advanced technologies, the increase of processing depth and successive efforts directed to improve the effectiveness of all parts of production chain guaranteed our strong financial results even under unfavorable market situation and negative consequences of Russia's accession to the WTO.

Despite difficult situation and growing uncertainty on the market, we haven't slowed down the investment activity, focusing on construction of new high-tech plants and extension of existing facilities capacities, as we are sure that production growth of high quality affordable domestic meat is the high-priority target for the business sector flagship.

With the startup of vertically-integrated projects on broiler chicken and high-quality beef production Miratorg will complete the creation of main food divisions under the terms of import substitution strategy and will significantly extend its export potential.

We focused our efforts on the increase of company's competitiveness under the conditions of Russian agro-industrial sector growing integration into global economy; ensuring the sustainable high quality and cost control are the Holding's key targets” - said the president of Miratorg Victor Linnik.