Miratorg has announced the construction of a slaughterhouse worth an estimated €1bn, with the capacity to slaughter 4.5 million pigs annually.

The company is Russia’s biggest producer of pork and is owned by the Linnikov brothers who are currently Russia’s biggest farmers. They have interests in pork, beef, dairy and tillage, and produced more than 154,900 tonnes of pork for the first half of 2017.

EU Ban

Since the Russian Federation announced an import ban on agricultural products from the EU in 2014, there has been a concerted effort from the Russian agri-business sector to meet national demand and fill the vacuum that was created when EU food imports were halted.

This latest venture is funded in part by the Russian government and the first stage of the project is expected to be completed in full by 2021.

By that stage the company’s total meat output will have reached an estimated 1.1m tonnes a year, which would be roughly equivalent to Ireland’s entire meat output for 2015.

Self-Sufficient

In wake of the EU import ban, Russia’s aim is to become self-sufficient in food by 2020 and earlier this year Ciarán Lenehan, beef livestock specialist with the Irish Farmers Journal, visited a 200,000 cow feed lot run by Miratorg. Ciarán reported that the company vision is create an American ranch-style system of beef production, and currently own 65 beef ranches totalling 1.3m acres.

It is estimated that Miratorg’s total meat output for 2017 will reach 700,000 tonnes.

Read more

Russia - A Potential Meat Superpower

Russian beef in numbers and pictures

Russia’s cattle industry