June 18, 2009
Smithfield Romania sales register 39-percent increase
Smithfield Foods, US-based largest pork producer worldwide, announced its operational profit in Romania in the 2008-09 fiscal year which reported an increase of 39 percent in sales, according to latest figures.
Smithfield Foods representatives said operations of the US Group in Romania and Poland have evolved well in the fourth quarter of last year, but with moderated results caused by the depreciation in the local currencies.
Despite the losses recorded in the exchange rate, both operations were profitable in the fourth quarter.
The largest producer of pork worldwide holds only two production units in Europe, one in Poland and one in Romania, in Timisoara.
Smithfield Romania is made of Smithfield Ferme and Smithfield Productie.
Smithfield Ferme holds a facility of combined forage in Vinga, in the Romanian Western Arad County, an investment worth some EUR30 million and a production capacity of approximately 8,000 tonnes of combined forages per week and is also breeding the pigs.
Smithfield has been operating on the Romanian market since March 2004, when it had acquired the former plant Comtim based in Timisoara, western Romania.
US$1 = EUR0.716 (June 18)
