Cherkizovo Group, Russia’s largest meat producer, made it to the winning list of the annual awards ceremony sponsored by Agroinvestor Magazine, a reputable industry publication. The Company received an award for its social project focusing on the renovation of school canteens, while also winning a special prize as the newsmaker of the year for the third year running.
On February 29, Moscow hosted the fourth award ceremony of the annual national award established by the industry publication Agroinvestor Magazine. The ceremony was attended by more than 100 guests, including the owners and managers of Russia’s agricultural majors and farms, representatives of federal and regional authorities, business media, industry experts and analysts. 18 businesses from the agricultural and allied sectors made it to the finals.
Based on the expert council’s vote, Cherkizovo Group won the top prize in the Socially Responsible Initiative nomination (Improvement of Regional Infrastructure and Social Environment category). The Company received the award for implementing the first stage of the school canteen renovation project together with Smenka, a social initiative and YouTube show. In 2023, the project enabled students from two schools in the Penza Region and one school in the Altai Territory to use modern canteen facilities with comfortable furniture. Incorporated into the new canteens’ décor were boards with accessible information on the basics of healthy eating (with experts of Cherkizovo’s partner — the Healthy Eating project of Rospotrebnadzor (Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Protection and Welfare) — providing inputs to the materials featured on the information boards).
«Cherkizovo Group places a particular emphasis on improving the social environment and infrastructure in the regions of its operation, and the Agroinvestor award comes as clear evidence that we are moving in the right direction. As early as this year, we have embarked on the second stage of the project to renovate school canteens. This project started off as a modest attempt to improve local infrastructure, but over time it has evolved into a comprehensive exercise to rethink dining spaces in Russian schools,» commented Vsevolod Gribchenkov, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development at Cherkizovo Group.
In December 2023, Cherkizovo Group completed the second stage of the school canteen renovation project, with three schools from Bashkortostan, the Orenburg and Chelyabinsk regions selected as the winners.
Another prize awarded by Agroinvestor to Cherkizovo in 2023 was a prize in the Corporate Newsmaker of the Year nomination. The winner was determined by the editorial board, which chose a company from the agricultural sector boasting the most extensive coverage in the magazine, on the website, and in the social media of Agroinvestor in 2023. The selection criteria also included the Company’s openness for communication, availability of its top managers, quality of interaction, performance of the press service, and the informative content of its website. In 2022 and 2021, Cherkizovo Group was also named the Newsmaker of the Year by Agroinvestor.