Cherkizovo Group, Russia's largest meat producer, entered another important export market, as the company has started supplying chicken meat to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The first batch, produced at the group’s Vasilyevskaya poultry farm in the Penza Region, has already been shipped to Saudi Arabia. It included boneless broiler chicken meat, for which there is a steady demand among the kingdom's meat processors and food service providers. The cargo is to be unloaded in the Saudi port of Jeddah, undergo the necessary customs procedures, and be sent to local consumers.
The chickens, bred specifically for export to the Saudi market, are raised on a diet of vegetable feed at the Vasilyevskaya poultry farm. The chickens are then slaughtered manually, in full compliance with the halal requirements specific to the Saudi market. The group's compliance with the halal process was confirmed by two Saudi Food and Drug Authority audits. These were carried out in 2020 and included a food safety review. In addition, chicken meat produced by the poultry farm was inspected by TUV, a testing agency authorized by the Saudi veterinary authorities to ensure the imported animal products’ compliance with Saudi requirements.
Saudi Arabia, with its 34 million inhabitants enjoying high living standards, is one of the most lucrative markets for Cherkizovo Group. The kingdom imports over 700,000 tons of poultry meat annually.
“We expect the successful sale of the group’s trial batches of chicken meat to pave the way for a lasting and mutually beneficial partnership with the largest Saudi poultry meat distributors and processors, who have already shown a lot of interest in Russian products. The Saudi market will remain one of the Group’s main strategic export development targets over the next few years,” said Andrei Terekhin, head of industry unions and government relations at Cherkizovo Trade House.
