VEB could lend Miratorg up to $2 bln for meat projects
NOVO-OGARYOVO. March 6 (Interfax) - Vnesheconombank (VEB) could lend the Miratorg Agribusiness Holding up to $2 billion for meat projects, the state development bank's chief, Vladimir Dmitriyev, said at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"This is for the production of premium beef, using the very latest technologies - around 120,000 tonnes of marbled beef which will be produced at those sites. Production is already under way, and we intend to continue lending in the future," Dmitriyev said.
"In general the volume of loans - and these are foreign-currency loans, as we are talking about buying elite cattle - this will be about $2 billion or just under," he said.
It was reported in January that VEB was allocating $742 million for the project, in the Bryansk region, with two credit facilities of $425.8 million and $316.2 million.
Miratiorg thinks the credit will enable it set up new meat farming enterprises quickly in the Oryol, Kaluga, Bryansk, Tula, Smolensk and Kursk regions which will form a high-yield beef cattle cluster.
"This is a very major production complex and slaughter-houses, and produce, which is in demand in almost all regions of the Central Federal District," Dmitriyev said.
Miratorg has been developing a vertically integrated beef complex in the Bryansk region from scratch. It has already invested the equivalent of 32.2 billion rubles, including $571 million and 66 million euro in VEB loans issued in 2010.
The complex currently has more than 200,000 hectares of pasture and plough-land, 110,000 head of specialized Aberdeen-Angus cattle at 33 farms, an intensive feeding complex and meat processing plant, which was launched in October 2014.