Now fully operational, the hatchery near the original Cobb grandparent farm is the first step in plans for Cobb Europe and Broiler Budoshego to expand parent stock production in Russia.

Sam Lipman, general manager of Broiler Budoshego, partner of Cobb in the Russian market, is very proud of the project and encouraged by customer feedback on the excellent chick quality in the first 50 deliveries.

He said: "We are currently employing over 60 people between the hatchery and the grandparent farm, and it is in our plans to expand production facilities four-fold."

A team of experts in grandparent, hatchery and quality management from Cobb Europe's production team will continue to support the project to ensure the highest standards are achieved in every aspect.

The growth of Cobb in Russia has been fast over the past five years, and it is estimated that in 2014 Cobb will be selling close to six million parent stock, approaching 30 per cent of the market.

“We are planning to produce in Russia at least 80 per cent of the Cobb parent stock sold there,” said Pelayo Casanovas, Russia business manager for Cobb Europe. “This will place us in a good position to be the leading breeding company in the country within five years.

"This success is mostly due to the efforts of our extensive sales and technical service team led by Patrick van Trijp and Irina Likhacheva, and including eight highly experienced members, coupled with the balanced performance of the Cobb500 that is much appreciated by Russian poultry integrators.

"With the Stromyn hatchery and the grandparent operation much closer to our customers, this will provide significant advantages in chick quality and lower transport costs, as well as placing us in a better position to avoid any interruption in supply," he said.

Up to now, most Cobb breeders supplied to Russia have been produced in Holland or Germany, which has become increasingly difficult with Russian authorities banning imports from these countries due to recurrent avian influenza outbreaks. This, coupled with the Russian government subsidising loans to invest in local poultry production, are the key reasons for Cobb expanding the Russian production capacity.

Stromyn has a ChickMaster single-stage hatchery with a capacity of approximately 3.5 million breeder females per year. The hatchery is managed by Don Sewell, who has more than 25 years’ experience in hatching parent stock.

He is very satisfied with its performance, stating: "The hatchery has a state-of-the-art ventilation system with individual air handling units in each room, which not only provides the right air flow and temperature throughout but also ensures very strict hygiene standards and excellent chick quality".

The delivery fleet taking chicks across a vast area of the Russian market is equipped with the latest Veit environmentally-controlled trailer units.

Chick handling at the new hatchery to produce the highest quality parent stock for the expanding Russian market