May 19, 2009
China's Zhongpin to upgrade its pork facility
Zhongpin Inc, a leading meat and food processing company in China, announced Monday (May 18) plans to upgrade its chilled and frozen pork facility in Changge City, Henan Province.
Besides the upgrading plans, Zhongpin also aimed to increase its annual production capacity of chilled and frozen pork by adding 22,000 tonnes to the current 59,760 tonnes at the Changge City facility.
In order to meet the growing demand for chilled pork products in Central China, Zhongpin's management decided to upgrade the company's production lines which will involve enhancing the pre-cooling function of the slaughtering lines, increasing production capacity of chilled pork and modifying the capacity design.
Furthermore, Zhongpin will install state-of-the-art equipment and machinery to improve its cooling systems, sewage disposal systems and other supporting facilities. Costing approximately US$6 million, the upgrade is scheduled to complete by the end of 2009.
Despite the decline in live hog prices and pork prices in the first quarter of 2009, the company's sales revenue from chilled pork rose nearly 57 percent to US$86.3 million, which represented 56 percent of its total revenue during the first quarter, according to Zhu Xianfu, CEO of Zhongpin. He added that the company's annual chilled pork sales increased from US$71.8 million in 2006 to US$289.3 million in 2008.
