OREANDA-NEWS. Miratorg, leading operator of the Russian meat market, announces solid operational results for January-September 2014.

Distribution

Sales volume of the vertically-integrated holding has increased to 342 thousand tons within the first nine months of 2014, this exceeds the indicator of a similar period of 2013 by 7,5%. The company gradually increases proportion of its own products in the total sales volume within the framework of import substitution strategy.

Pork production

The company increased pork production by 8%, up to 273 thousand tons, on live weight basis against 265,5 thousand tons compared to the previous year. This growth is conditioned with new sites in Kursk region attaining their production capacity. Miratorg overviews the possibility of establishing a new vertically-integrated pig breeding division in Kursk region with the capacity of up to 4 million heads per year. The Holding will also continue to focus on increased efficiency, control of the production costs, as well as improvement of the production indicators.

Meat processing facility SK "Korocha" produced 199 thousand tons of products within the first nine months of 2014, which exceeds the indicator of a similar period in 2013 by 6%. The production of products in retail packaging grows at a fast pace: 25,8 thousand tons in the period of January - September of 2014, which is 40% more than the similar period of 2013.

Poultry production

"Bryanskiy Broiler", the operator of the vertically-integrated production of poultry meat goes on to increase the scope of market supply - 17 thousand tons of products produced within the period of January - September of 2014, against 5,3 thousand tons within the first half-year period of 2014. The volume of eggs set for hatching exceeded 20 million, which is 70% of the planned capacity.

The company has started five of the seven projected broiler sites. The total amount of heads at all of the companies sites exceeds 3,7 million heads and will continue to grow, with the startup of 2 new sites, till the end of the year.

The Holding plans to bring vertically-integrated poultry production to full capacity of 100 thousand tons of products per year in February of 2015.

Beef production

Miratorg continues executing the biggest project in Europe to create vertically-integrated high-quality beef production according to the business plan.

Following the results of the nine month period of 2014, the total amount of the specialized breed, Aberdeen Angus cattle, at the companies 33 farms in the Bryansk region has increased to 250 thousand heads, including 80 thousand calves born in 2014.

The Holding will carry on extending the animal breeding division. New investment of 7,7 billion rubles has been agreed and signed with the Bryansk region, and Miratorg will construct 5 new cattle breeding farms in the region.

Miratorg will also develop a cattle breeding division in Kaliningrad region, where the total herd of Aberdeen Angus cattle in the five farms will exceed 30 thousand heads, of which 16 thousand will be breeder stock.

The Holding have started a new beef cattle breeding project in Kaluga region with investments totalling 6 billion rubles: it's planned that eight farms for 32 thousand heads of breeder stock, and over 40 thousand hectares will be returned into agricultural processing by the year 2018.

The feedlot in Bryansk region is at 80% of full capacity - 36 thousand heads of cattle are receiving a grain fattening diet, which provides weight gains at the level of world standards - 1,8-2,0 kg per a day.

Cattle slaughtering and processing at the high technology plant, that has no analogues in Russia in terms of automation, will start processing in October 2014. The Holding plans to supply to the market with over 5 thousand tons of high quality nationally produced beef from the Bryansk region by the end of the year.

Further Processed production

"Miratorg Zapad", Miratorg's subsidiary production unit, which produces frozen meat products at their high technology facility located in the Kaliningrad region, has produced over 21 thousand tons of products within the first nine months of 2014, which exceeds the similar period of 2013 by 33,6%.

The company carries on developing and starting new types of products under its own trademarks Miratorg and Gurmama, for clients in the HORECA segment, the number of which constantly grows.

The Company switched another production line to the three shifts schedule in August to satisfy the customers' demand for quality products: now two of the four lines operate 24 hours a day.

"Miratorg Zapad" made the decision to construct a 5th technological line for increased production of further processed products. Start-up of the new line will increase plant capacity by 33%, up to 80 thousand tons, of ready products by the middle of 2015. Investments into the project will amount to over 11 billion euros.

The plant successfully passed an audit according to McDonalds standards (Audit Supplier Quality Management System) and an audit by KFC fast food chain restaurants, covering document control to the dispatch of ready products.

Feed production

Total volume of feed production by the Holding plants in Belgorod and Bryansk region has increased within the first nine months of 2014 up to 867 thousand tons against 770,1 thousand tons within a similar period of 2013. This increase is due to the production increase at the high technology feed mill in Bryansk region which is aimed to supply feed for Miratorg's poultry project. Calculated capacity of the company's feed mill assets is 1,46 million tons of products per year.

Crop production

Total volume of crop cultures harvested by Miratorg within the first nine months of 2014 totaled 1.365 million tons that exceeds a similar period of 2013 by 84%. Area of cultivated land of the Holding increased by 86 thousand hectares within the first nine months of 2014 and totaled 447 thousand hectares, which exceeds the indicator of a similar period of 2013 by 24%.

The company increased the area of cultivated land in Belgorod and Kursk regions by 3% up to 113 thousand hectares, compared to the period of January - September 2013. "Agroholding Ivnyanskii" LLC and "Pristenskaya zernovaya kompania" LLC, key producers of grain crops within the Holding, harvested 257 thousand tons of grain which exceeds the indicator of a similar period in 2013 by 14%. The land area in Oryol region is 19 thousand hectares, the harvest of grain cultures exceeds 70 thousand tons in 2014 .

Within the framework of the beef production project the Holding increased the area of cultivated land by 20%, up to 285 thousand hectares, and increased the total volume of hay, haylage, silage, and grain crops production in the Bryansk region by 98%, up to 964 thousand tons.

"Kaliningrad meat Company", operator of beef cattle production project, produced 73 thousand tons of hay, haylage, and silage within the first nine months of 2014, the area of cultivated land totaled up to 30 thousand hectares.