OREANDA-NEWS. Financing for a major project of Cherkizovo Group, one of Russia's leading food manufacturers, has been approved with assistance from Sberbank CIB. The funds will be used to finance the company's joint project with Spanish company Grupo Fuertes to construct a turkey meat processing and production plant in the Tambov Region.

The total amount of investment in the Tambov Turkey project is RUB 7.5 bln, with over RUB 3 bln jointly provided by Grupo Fuertes and Cherkizovo Group. The output of the project is estimated at 40,000 tonnes of turkey meat per year. The launch date of the plant is 2015.

Tambov Turkey is a landmark project because it involves Spanish company Grupo Fuertes, a leading European producer of turkey meat that possesses many years of experience in creating similar high-tech production facilities. The significant investment in this project is a testament to the development prospects of the Russian turkey meat market on the whole and foreign investors' interest in high-tech Russian agriculture industry projects. This project to construct facilities for processing and producing turkey meat in the Tambov Region will help to considerably increase the volume of production of high-quality, nutritious poultry and make it more accessible to the Russian population.

Cherkizovo Group is the largest meat manufacturer in Russia and one of the top three companies serving Russia's poultry, pork and meat processing markets. The company is also Russia's largest producer of fodder. Cherkizovo shares are quoted on the LSE and the Moscow Exchange.

The Group includes seven full cycle poultry production facilities, with a total capacity of 400,000 tonnes live weight p.a.; 14 modern pork production facilities with a total capacity of 180,000 tonnes live weight p.a.; six meat processing plants with a total capacity of 190,000 tons p.a.; six fodder plants with a total capacity of 1.4 million tonnes p.a.; grain storage facilities with a total storage capacity exceeding 500,000 tonnes; and a land bank exceeding 100,000 hectares. In 2013, Cherkizovo produced more than half a million tons of meat and processed meat products. In addition to existing production facilities, the Group is also investing in a 20 billion rouble hi-technology agro-industrial production complex in Elets, Lipetsk Region.