The site in Preiļi will become the home of a subsidiary of APF Holdings, "Preiļu putni", which will create new jobs and will be closely linked to the holding farm in Alūksne.
"Preiļi is a deliberate step by us to replenish our already existing production plant. In Alūksne, we buy 16-week-old laying hens from Lithuania and Poland, but there is some inconvenience because the chickens are transported for many hours. Then those chickens produce eggs with us. But we have the idea of growing chickens for ourselves. It will be cheaper, there will be a shorter transportation path (..)," said Hermans Dobgijs, chair of the farm.
The chickens will live in an environment where they will be able to move freely. “We plan to have 3-4 barns in Preiļi with 300-400 thousand chickens, maybe even more,” said Dovgijs.
The Alūksne plant is the second largest egg producer in Latvia, producing 115 million eggs per year.
Agro-resources and economy institute's associate professor Inguna Gulbe said: “Chicken and eggs are the cheapest way we can get the animal protein [..] with the smallest size of [ecological] foot. By comparison, pork is not such a growing market. So it's good that we do something like this. [..] We consume eggs moderately, about 240 eggs per person [per year] in Latvia, but we produce a lot, much more."
It is planned to start growing chickens in Preiļi next year.
