Gruppa Cherkizovo : Cherkizovo Group completes construction of the third new-format pork farm in the Penza region

Penza, Russia - 20 December 2018 - Ivan Belozertsev, Governor of the Penza region, came for a working visit to the wean-to-finish site constructed in the Penza region by Cherkizovo Group (MOEX: GCHE), the largest vertically integrated meat producer in Russia.

Today, the Penza region is a strategically important area for Cherkizovo Group. Over a five-year span, the Company is planning to invest in the region up to RUB 8 billion, an amount comparable to the overall volume of investments made by Cherkizovo since it first came to Penza.

The Penza region is the place where the Company is implementing a large-scale project to construct a new type of pork farms featuring combined wean-to-finish facilities with an annual output of 5,100 tonnes of live-weight pork. In the near term, Cherkizovo is planning to build a total of seven such sites in the region. This number may go up subject to a favourable business environment, support from the local authorities, allotment of land for construction, road access and infrastructure development. The investment is estimated at RUB 550 million. Each site is designed to house 20,000 pigs at a time, or up to some 50,000 market hogs per year. This is the third site of this type in the Penza region. The four others are under construction, with commissioning expected in 2019.

Penza is the region Cherkizovo Group is banking on to develop its pork segment over the next five years. When Cherkizovo came here, the region's pork production was at best in its infancy. Now, Cherkizovo Group alone churns out 13,000 tonnes of pork per year.

The Group also invests heavily in biosafety - the new farm is equipped with two staff changing facilities to meet the increased biosafety requirements. This has become a standard practice for constructing the Group's pork farms, as it earns our sites the highest livestock sanitary status in Russia enabling them to be classified as Compartment IV facilities. No other company in Russia can boast pork farms of this type.

After implementation of the Company's investment projects in the Penza region, the region will be able not only to take the lead in championing the cause of food safety in Russia, but also to gain a prominent position among other regions exporting non-commodity products. To this end, the Company intends to continue working in close cooperation with the authorities of the Penza region and deliver on all its commitments in due course.