July 22 2008, 10:10

"Orix" group to invest to the champignon production

"Orix" group of companies in Samara is intended to extend its mushroom business due to the assets available after the sales of four poultry farms to Moscow company "Napko". The group plans to launch three champignon production facilities in the region; the total capacity of these facilities will amount to 6,000 tons per year. Around EUR 20 mln. will be invested to the project. The company plans to supply products to the other regions and to occupy the leading position on the federal market of mushroom production. However, the experts warn that the company should establish the processing facility too in order to reach the level of the federal market player.

"Orix" group of companies is intended to extend the mushroom production in Samarskaya region. Now "Orix" produces 2,000 tons of fresh champignons in Kinelskiy region. This fall LLC "Orix" will launch the compost producing plant (at the present moment the raw material for mushroom production is purchased in Moscowskaya region), Yuri Fokin, the General Director of the company told "Kommersant". Also, by 2011 the company is intended to construct three facilities for the production of fresh champignons. Together they will grow 6,000 tons of mushrooms. Mr. Fokin informs, the investments to the project will amount to around EUR 20 mln. According to his information, the company plans to obtain a part of this sum due to the sales of the OJSC "Ptitseprom", which belongs to the group. We'd like to remind that in the nearest future LLC "Napko", managed by Igor Babayev, the co-owner of OJSC "Cherkizovo Group", is intended to buy OJSC "Pritseprom". OJSC "Ptitseprom" consists of four poultry farms: Zhigulevskaya, Krotovskaya, Podbelskaya and Timashevskaya farms. According to the sources in "Orix" company, the sum of the deal will amount to EUR 10 mln.

Yuri Fokin says, the intention to extend the mushroom production is caused by the weakly developed market. "The market is opened now, there is almost no competition", he says. According to estimations of Yuri Fokin, the volume of the mushroom consumption on the regional market is 5,400 tons per year. Earlier "Orix" company sold the most part of the grown mushrooms in Samarskaya region. According to Yuri Fokin, as soon as the production is extended, the group plans to reach the federal level by 2009 and to sell mushrooms to the other regions - Moscowskaya, Saratovskaya, Orenburgskaya, Chelyabinskaya regions, and also the Republic of Tatarstan and Bashkorkostan. Yuri Fokin hopes, the company will be able to occupy around 13% of Russian market of fresh mushrooms production when "Orix" plants reach the full capacity.

"Kommersant" informs: "Orix" belongs to four largest national producers of fresh mushrooms; the other three enterprises are Moscow Group of Companies "Ledovo", CJSC "Moscow Agricomplex", and also CJSC "Prinevskaya" in St-Petersburg. According to estimations of the market players, all Russian companies supplied around 9,000 tons of champignons past year. During the same period of time Russia has consumed around 53,000 tons of mushrooms. So, the rest of the mushroom market is the imported mushrooms of Polish, Dutch, Belgium and Chinese origin.

The experts and the market players shared different opinions regarding the evaluation of the perspectives of Samara company project. "If "Orix" is a serious company from the point of view of the technical tools of the business, the success is sure to come", Victor Semkin, the Acting General Director of CJSC "Moscow Agricomplex", thinks. "But, if the available equipment is not of the respective quality, the company may count only on the one-time success". "If "Orix" really covers 13% of the demand of Russian mushroom market, it will become the first player of the federal level in this segment", Andrey Golokhvastov, General Director of CJSC "Agriconsult" believes. "The other producers are still selling the grown products predominantly in the own regions". To his opinion, the company may face several problems when entering the federal level. "First, mushrooms are perishable products", Andrey Golokhvsatov specified. "If trading with the other regions, the producer will have to supply fresh mushrooms. Also, the chain sales are developing now, and, there are some difficulties in the work with the retail chains. For example, such are delayed payments for the supplied product, a high fee for the entrance to the chain. So, the company should think about either mushroom packing or processing".