Instead of Voronezh "Zarechny" cattle "Talex" can be purchased by "Miratorg"

The Talex group of companies, which became famous for the massive loss of livestock in the Voronezh region and abandoned cattle breeding, is trying to sell the remaining livestock. To the previous probable buyer - the local Zarechnoye LLC of Sergei Nitsenko - another one was added: the agro-industrial holding Miratorg became interested in the animals. According to the head of Talex, Alexei Totunov, it is Miratorg that is closest to purchasing 1.8 thousand heads, and Mr. Nitsenko assured Kommersant that he “does not buy” Talex’s cattle. Miratorg itself does not comment on the possibility of purchase. But the regional government does not want to give the animals outside the region, where the holding company can transfer them if acquired.

The Talex livestock may move from the Voronezh region to the Bryansk region
Photo: Oleg Kharseev, Kommersant

The head of Talex, Alexey Totunov, told Kommersant about Miratorg’s interest in 1.8 thousand Aberdeen Angus cows located at a feedlot in the Anninsky district of the Voronezh region. “The livestock has fully recovered after the winter and is in perfect condition. About half have already been confirmed pregnant. Negotiations with Sergei Nitsenko have not been stopped, but the new buyer, Miratorg, is already much closer to purchasing the animals. We want to get a little less than 100 million rubles for them, and we can close the deal by the end of July,” said Mr. Totunov. According to him, now we are talking about the sale of livestock, although previously it was planned to also implement holding sites in the Anninsky and Gribanovsky districts. The head of Talex then also estimated the deal at about 100 million rubles, the initial amount of investment in the creation of a livestock company was 700 million rubles.

For the first time, plans to sell Talex cattle to Zarechny (implementing the largest livestock project in the region, designed to support from 24 to 60 thousand heads) became known on January 16. It was then that, with the participation of the regional department of agrarian policy, a preliminary agreement was reached on the sale of not only livestock, but also sites in the Anninsky and Gribanovsky districts. However, from the very beginning, Mr. Totunov spoke about the difference in approaches to providing feed (“Talex” uses pasture grazing, and “Zarechnoye” uses expensive feedlots) and uncertainty about the time of transfer of livestock (options of immediate transfer and sale after spring restoration were considered).

The fact that there was an agreement between Talex and Zarechny, concluded with the help of regional authorities, was widely publicized by the regional government. But Sergei Nitsenko himself repeatedly told Kommersant that the company’s plans “did not include the acquisition of Talex cattle.” The other day he told Kommersant that he “does not buy” livestock, but chose not to explain the details and reasons. Miratorg officially neither confirmed nor denied the possible acquisition of Talex livestock.

However, a source in the regional government told Kommersant yesterday that Miratorg’s likely acquisition of livestock may not meet with unambiguous support from the regional government. “We would not like to give the cattle outside the region,” explained Kommersant’s interlocutor. Meanwhile, the agro-industrial holding does not have cattle production sites in the Voronezh region. Miratorg beef production is concentrated in the Bryansk and Kaliningrad regions. In the Bryansk region (about 500 km from the Anninsky district) there is a vertically integrated beef production worth 32.2 billion rubles. The project now includes 110 thousand heads of maternal herd on 33 livestock farms, a feedlot and a meat processing plant. The next stage involves doubling the indicators of the pilot project - in particular, increasing the maternal herd to 200 thousand heads and the total livestock to 500 thousand heads, building 31 new farms, as well as increasing production output to 130 thousand tons of beef per year. The total cost of the project will be $871.5 million (about 50 billion rubles).

It is noteworthy that the amount of 100 million rubles. for 1.8 thousand Aberdeen Angus, or about 56 thousand in terms of one head, is quite low - even taking into account the acquisition of livestock of different sex and age groups (adult animals are cheaper than heifers). “Now on the market the average price for an Aberdeen Angus heifer is 180-200 thousand rubles. for an imported head and 130–150 thousand rubles. for the Russian one,” notes Denis Cherkesov, general director of the National Union of Beef Producers.

Oleg Mukhin

Why Talex no longer raises livestock

As the head of Talex, Alexey Totunov, told Kommersant yesterday, the company “definitely will no longer be involved in cattle breeding.” This decision was made this spring after a scandal involving livestock deaths at the site of Taurus LLC (a Talex structure) in the Gribanovsky district at the end of December 2014. Then information appeared in the media about the discovery of numerous animal corpses in the vicinity of the village of Vlasovka. Governor Alexei Gordeev called on the regional department of agrarian policy to “take appropriate measures” up to the transfer of livestock to a “bona fide owner.” The ONF, the Ministry of Agriculture and the prosecutor's office joined in the consideration of the situation. The exact number of dead animals is still unknown: the numbers ranged from several tens to one and a half thousand (according to the ONF), Kommersant’s sources put the figure at 300-400 animals. In early April, the head of the department of agricultural policy, Anatoly Spivakov, told Kommersant that “the only possible way out” for Mr. Totunov would be to sell all the livestock: “Totunov needs to either move to those areas of business where he has successful experience, or leave the region.” However, Mr. Totunov himself told Kommersant that the sale was “his own decision,” and he explained the death by difficulties with feed in the winter “due to a lack of hay, which none of the major producers sold during the cold period.”

Livestock changes registration