VOLGOGRAD, August 6 (RIA Novosti) – US agribusiness giant Cargill is spending at least $200 million to build a sunflower oil factory in southern Russia’s Volgograd Region, the local government said Tuesday.
The region, bisected by the Volga River, annually produces more than 600,000 tons of sunflowers, most of which are currently sent out of the region for processing, the administration’s press service said in a statement.
The new oil-extraction factory, “the largest investment in the Volgograd agribusiness in recent years,” will localize processing, as well as add new jobs and bring considerable tax revenue to the region, the press service quoted Governor Sergei Bozhenov as saying.
Construction of the factory, in the region’s northwest Novoanninsky District, has already begun and is expected to be completed in two years, the administration’s statement said. The facility, with an anticipated annual output of 500,000 tons, is expected to pay at least 260 million rubles ($800,000) in taxes every year.
Repeated calls for comment at Cargill’s Moscow office went unanswered Tuesday.
