THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 2, 1994 TAG: 9406020507
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LINDA MCNATT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940602 LENGTH: SMITHFIELD
``Okorok,'' Mezinov said, patting the fat, butt end of a curing country ham hanging upside down in the dark.
{REST} ``Pork okorok,'' Zaikin said, nodding.
Both men, Russians involved in the United States Department of Agriculture's Foreign Travel Agribusiness Linkage Program, recognized the product.
Okorok, or ham, is reserved in Russia for special occasions and holidays, much like it is in this country.
And for ``funerals,'' Mezinov said, crossing his arms over his chest and closing his eyes to punctuate his meaning.
Mezinov is co-owner of Mezinov Meat Processing in Rostov-on-Don, about 600 miles south of Moscow.
His company produces sausage and ham in much the same, traditional manner as local packing houses like this one, V.W. Joyner in Smithfield.
Russian hams, however, are cured for a shorter time, Mezinov said in the broken English he learned in a crash course at the University of Arkansas last month.
``We want to see the processes and the technology here,'' Zaikin said. ``We want to see the people work.''
Zaikin is a former electrical engineer who helped design and build a meat processing plant in Gorney, Russia, about 600 miles east of Moscow.
He and 33 of his employees now own 51 percent of the stock in the company, which processes about 4 tons of pork and beef sausage daily.
Mezinov, who was in the military before the fall of communism, has 80 employees. With a partner, he owns a meat processing company, an importing business and a grocery store. His packing plant processes about 2 tons of beef and pork sausage each day.
Both men joined the USDA's newest exchange venture when they were identified by Peace Corps volunteers as likely to benefit from the program, said Lowell H. Peterson, president of Bunker Hill Foods in Bedford, Va.
Bunker Hill is a subsidiary of The Smithfield Companies Inc. of Portsmouth, which also owns Joyner's and Pruden.
Peterson said Bunker Hill is the first American company to participate in the program, which started when he and Richard S. Fuller, president of the Smithfield Companies, went to Russia for eight days in February to learn more about Russian food distribution systems.
They visited the plants run by Mezinov and Zaikin.
Russian sausage is much like American pepperoni or jerky, Peterson said. Fresh sausage is impossible to get because of distribution problems.
The Russians returned the honor in late April. So far, they've toured two packing operations in Smithfield, a smokehouse in Suffolk, and a hot dog and dry sausage plant in Portsmouth.
For fun, they attended a Norfolk Tides baseball game and went on a dinner cruise on the Spirit of Norfolk.
Today they will visit Old Dominion University and Nauticus. An Anheuser Busch tour and Busch Gardens are on tap Friday.
After several days in Washington talking with trade associates, U.S. senators and their own countrymen at the Russian Embassy, Mezinov and Zaikin will return home with new knowledge that USDA officials hope they will put to work.
``These gentlemen came here to learn new techniques they can take back with them,'' said John Vaeth, their host at Bunker Hill. ``Later, our people will go back to Russia to see what they've applied.''
by CNB