Cherkizovo Group, a vertically integrated meat and feed producer in Russia, ranked among the top three pork producers in Russia based on data from the National Union of Pork Producers. Cherkizovo produced 184,770 tons of pork in 2016, representing 5.2 percent of the country’s share.
The National Union of Pork Producers tracks the performance of the twenty largest pork producers in Russia, which together account for 60.1 percent of Russia’s total pork production.
“Cherkizovo Group started pork production from scratch over ten years ago and has come a long way since then,” Sergei Mikhailov, CEO of Cherkizovo Group, said in a press release. “We have built modern production facilities in the Voronezh, Lipetsk, Tambov and Penza regions and are in the process of building more facilities. Our investment in production and focus on enhanced operational efficiency have helped us to achieve such strong results in 2016.”
Cherkizovo pork production strategy
A genetics improvement strategy to improve pigs’ health status was launched by Cherkizovo management at the beginning of the year. On top of that, investment in operational efficiency has helped to improve livability and weekly farrows.
African swine fever outbreak in Cherkizovo sow farm in 2016
Cherkizovo reported an African swine fever outbreak at the sow farm in Lev Tolstovskiy district of the Lipetsk region of Russia. The sow farm, which houses 1 percent of the company’s total pig stock, was quarantined.
A DNA-copying protein from the African swine fever virus has a unique structure that may offer a target for drugs designed to combat this agricultural disease, according to a study published February 28 in the journal PLOS Biology by Yiqing Chen and colleagues at Fudan University in Shanghai, China.
