"We decided to go to Belarus because turkey consumption is practically non-existent there. The market is untouched, and there is a very high potential. We want to be the first to introduce turkey into the market," Vidmantas Kučinskas, the chairman of the management board at Arvi ir Ko, told BNS.
Per capita annual consumption of turkey in Belarus currently amounts to less than 100 grams, compared with nearly 3 kilograms in Lithuania, Kučinskas said.
"Even if we reach a kilogram per capita, this will mean at least 10,000 tons of products yearly," he said.
Arvi's top managers and Grodno Region Governor Semyon Shapiro signed the investment agreements last Friday, Belarus' news agency Belta has reported.
BPS-Sberbank is financing both projects, which are planned to be implemented in the district of Lida by 2017.
The first project, estimated to cost at least 20 million euros, calls for building a turkey product facility with an annual capacity of at least 5,000 tons.
Kučinskas said that this project would create 210 jobs.
In the second project, Arvi plans to invest around 7 million euros in the upgrading and increasing the capacity of the Lida Veterinary and Sanitary Utilization Plant.
The Lithuanian-owned group operates in the areas of fertilizer, feed and sugar production, meat processing, animal waste utilization and cargo forwarding.
It has 22 companies in Lithuania, Latvia, Russia, Romania, Ukraine, and Croatia.
