This was the first time that directors representing every major poultry firm in Russia have been brought together and the tour was designed to stimulate conversation on ways to expand the Russian poultry industry.

The initiative included a visit to Aviagen partner, Moy Park's state-of-the-art processing factory at Anwick in Lincolnshire, which was originally built in 1950 but recently benefited from a £45-million investment by Moy Park. The extended facility is one of the most efficient in the UK, with a weekly kill capacity of 1.6 million birds.

In addition, senior Aviagen staff also took time to give an overview of where the market is going and how the company's extensive research and development work is designed to support future growth. Alongside this, the importance of customer participation in the benchmarking scheme was also underlined.

Tyark Osterndorff, Business Development Director for Aviagen, said that the tour had been an unparalleled success, stating: "This tour is a strong statement of our resolve to develop Russia's huge potential. Aviagen is already a leading supplier in the country but this was about the industry as a whole, not any one business.

"We are very grateful to Moy Park for allowing us unprecedented access to their facility. Being able to see first-hand the way a facility like Anwick works is another step on the road towards improving standards and bringing the Russian poultry industry to a self-sufficient level.

"The benchmarking presentation given by John Ralph, Global Head of Technical Systems, was of particular interest. Russia represents a unique challenge in terms of environment; therefore benchmarking and understanding how well flocks are performing in some dramatically different environments further improves the development of our birds."

The participants were enthusiastic about the tour.

Alexander Savin of Sinergia Group, said: "The Edinburgh office meeting was very interesting and the presentations very helpful. We wish good health to Jim McAdam, UK Breeding Programme Director, to continue the selection and genetic process to constantly update and improve the Ross 308."

Vladimir Gobbachev of Elinar-Broiler, added: "Thanks to Aviagen for this meeting. It was really interesting for me to compare the Moy Park slaughterhouse with our processing plant. There were many details to see and I am looking forward to exchanging knowledge between our companies."

Elman Azizov of Yaroslavsky Broiler, summed up his thoughts, saying: "Such meetings are giving us the possibility not to meet as competitors but as industry players to share knowledge between companies to indicate better ways of improving business. I wish good luck to Aviagen! We are proud of our partnership with Aviagen and the Ross brand as we are one of the oldest customers of Ross products and have been working with Aviagen genetics since 1998."