The shipment will form the genetic core of its pork production programme and will drive expansion of the project’s capacity, to an output of 420,000 slaughter pigs per year. Gvardia is part of the Agrico Group, one of the largest private agricultural companies in the Russian Federation, farming on 100,000 hectares and employing more than 3000 people.

Though PIC has supplied many thousands of elite breeders from Canada, Europe and its local Russian production network to its Russian clients, this is the first delivery to be sourced from the US. Lack of suitable scheduled routes necessitates contracting a full charter and the scale of the order justified the investment in this case.

Moreover, the landmark delivery was marked by another first in porcine aviation: The jumbo freighter flew from Chicago not to a major hub, like Moscow or St Petersburg, but to the town of Mineralnye Vody.

While the runway at the local airport is rated long enough to land a Boeing 747, it had never been put to the test before and additional permitting, purchase of new equipment and staff training all needed to be resolved to make it happen.

After unloading, the pigs were driven the remaining 250km to the new breeding facility in Sturm. Amiram Zakim, General Director of Gvardia, commented: “At times this delivery seemed impossible but due to the combined efforts and determination of PIC, Stavropol Government, Mineralnye Vody Airport and ourselves it became a reality. If you believe you want it to happen you will make it happen.”

Nick Brookes, General Director of PIC Russia, said: “This has been a huge effort by all involved. I would like to formally thank our friends in Mineralnye Vody Airport for their support and resolve, and our partners at Gvardia for making this delivery possible. As the aircraft touched down at 17:08 on 19 December another case of extraordinary people doing extraordinary things entered the record books!”