US agribusiness giant Cargill has opened a chicken facility in near Moscow, marking the firm’s first primary chicken processing operations in Russia.

The plant represents a further investment of US$40m at the company’s industrial complex at Efremov, located 300km south of Moscow. The facility has employed over 140 local staff has the capacity to produce 18,000 metric tonnes per annum of high quality further processing chicken products.

Products from the new facility will include Chicken McNuggets for McDonald’s.

Cargill’s operations in Efremov include a corn and wheat sweeteners plant; a vegetable oil refinery and bottling facility; a malt plant and an animal feed mill.