Damate becomes self-sufficient in hatching eggs

Damate plans to hatch 10 million turkey chicks a year. Photo: Jan Willem Schouten

Russian turkey meat producer, Damate Group, has reached 100% self-sufficiency in hatching eggs at its Rostov branch, according to the company.

“An own parent turkey flock in Rostov makes us significantly less dependent on imported genetic material, reduces biological risks and increases egg quality indicators due to a shorter storage period and logistics optimisation,” Damate Group CEO, Rashid Khairov, said.

“Eggs are transported over very short distances, which reduces the share of delivery losses and secures maximum hatchability of chicks,” he added.

5 million eggs

Damate plans to produce 40,000 tonnes of turkey meat in 2021. For that the Rostov division needs 5 million hatching eggs per year. The company said it had established a breeding flock of 88,000 birds in Rostov.

The company runs several hatcheries with a total designed production performance of 10 million chicks per year. This volume is sufficient to cover the Rostov branch’s internal needs for hatching eggs, as well as to partially meet the demand of the company’s turkey production complex in the Penza region, Damate said.

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In the Rostov region, Damate produces turkey at several farms previously operated by the bankrupted Russian turkey company, Eurodon. Damate began building the parent stock farm in September 2020, and imported the first batch of day-old chicks from the UK. In April 2021, the company reported that 18,000 breeding turkeys were transferred from the rearing barns to the laying house. In May 2021, Damate collected the first eggs.

Expanding production

“Damate is the only turkey producer in Russia creating its own parent flock on an industrial scale. Now the total design capacity of all production sites of the breeding farm is about 10 million chicks per year,” the company estimated.

“For more than a year now, Damata, in accordance with agreements with the government of the Rostov region, has been successfully restoring and expanding the production of turkey and duck meat [in the region],” said Viktor Goncharov, first deputy governor of the Rostov region, adding that the authorities allocated US$ 2.9 million worth of subsidies to the company to purchase hatching eggs for turkey and duck segments.

“Of course, own parent stock will strengthen the company’s positions and become an excellent basis for its development,” Goncharov added.