Payment for meat: they want to recover ₽7 billion from a large plant in the Stavropol Territory

The North Caucasian Interregional Department of Rosprirodnadzor filed a lawsuit with the Arbitration COURT of Stavropol against Guards LLC. This is stated in the materials of the card file of the court.

We are talking about the collection of debt on payment for negative impact on the environment in the amount of more than 7.5 billion rubles, of which: the main debt is 5.9 billion rubles, penalties - 1.6 billion rubles.

The court accepted the statement of claim and initiated proceedings in the case. A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for November 22, 2021.

Guards LLC is part of the Agrico group of companies. According to information on the company's website, Gvardiya LLC is the largest MEAT processing plant in southern RUSSIA. The production is fully provided with raw materials from our own pig farms. The processing capacity of the MPC is 35 thousand tons of meat products per year. The plant has the highest zoosanitary status - compartment IV (farm of the highest level of protection). 420 thousand pigs are raised annually with an average weight of more than 115 kg.

According to the Company's RBC service, Gvardiya LLC was registered in the village of Shturm in the Stavropol Territory in 2004. The main activity is breeding pigs. The founders of the enterprise are Martinico Beheer I BV (Netherlands) and Agrofirm Zolotaya Niva LLC. The organization's revenue in 2020 amounted to 5.59 billion rubles, net profit - 1.41 billion rubles.

Litigation cases

In September 2021, the North Caucasian Interregional Directorate of Rosprirodnadzor reported that the court recognized the agency's demands to pay a fee for NVOS as legitimate.

In particular, the North-Caucasian Interregional Directorate of Rosprirodnadzor issued a requirement to LLC Gvardiya to pay a fee in the amount of more than 5.7 billion rubles for the negative impact on the environment.

So, in 2018, employees of the Rosprirodnadzor department conducted a scheduled on-site inspection of a meat processing plant. In the course of it, the fact of the formation of manure as a result of production activities, which belongs to waste of the III hazard class, was confirmed. In turn, the enterprise did not take into account this type of waste, did not indicate in the reporting, did not pay for the negative impact on the environment, the department noted. Based on the results of the audit, Guards LLC was ordered to pay a fee for the disposal of production waste for 2016-2017. The organization disagreed with the order and challenged it in court.

In June 2020, the Judicial Collegium for Administrative Cases of the Fifth Court of Cassation of General Jurisdiction upheld the ruling of the Judicial Collegium for Administrative Cases of the Stavropol Regional Court dated November 26, 2019, and the cassation appeal of Gvardiya LLC was left unsatisfied.

In addition, the courts of appeal and cassation recognized the requirements of the North Caucasian Interregional Department of Rosprirodnadzor to pay a fee for the disposal of manure, as a waste of hazard class III, legal and justified.

RBC Kavkaz sent a request to the North Caucasian Interregional Department of Rosprirodnadzor to find out the reasons for filing a lawsuit with the Stavropol Arbitration Court in October.