July 27, 2010

Zhongpin to set up pork plant in Northeast China

Zhongpin Inc announced Monday (Jul 26) it will construct a new pork plant and cold-chain logistics centre with an annual capacity of 125,000 tonnes of pork products in Nong'an county in the Jilin province of China.

The meat and food processor expects to invest about US$61.5 million in the new facility that includes a slaughtering and processing plant, low temperature prepared pork plant, logistics centre, and research & development centre.

The new plant will be located in China's largest grain-producing county, which is also China's largest animal husbandry region and one of its premium meat producing counties. About four million hogs are slaughtered for food in Nong'an county each year. This site is adjacent to the main markets that include the cities of Harbin and Changchun, making the location ideal for both the source of hogs and for large markets that consume pork products.

Xianfu Zhu, Chairman and CEO of Zhongpin, said "This facility will be part of our plan to expand to national market coverage for our food products. The facility will include all of Zhongpin's modern integrated process engineering and IT systems."

The new plant's annual production capacity will be a total of 125,000 tonnes, with 70,000 for chilled pork, 25,000 for frozen pork, and 30,000 for prepared pork products. Zhongpin expects to process about 1.2 million hogs in its new plant each year.

The first phase of construction, which includes the production lines and cold-chain logistics and distribution systems for chilled pork and frozen pork, R&D centre, and employee living area, is scheduled to start construction in the third quarter of 2010, with trial pork production starting in the fourth quarter 2011. The second phase of construction, which will include production facilities for prepared pork products, will begin in the second quarter of 2011 and should be completed in the third quarter of 2012.

Zhongpin Inc specialises in pork and pork products, vegetables, and fruits in China. Its distribution network in the China covers 20 provinces plus Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Chongqing and includes more than 3,000 retail outlets. Zhongpin's export markets include the EU and Southeast Asia.