COFCO to buy Maverick Food

China National Cereals, Oils & Foodstuffs Import and Export Corp, which is also known as COFCO, yesterday announced that it has signed an agreement to buy Maverick Food Co Ltd for RMB 194 million.

Maverick Food will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of COFCO, according to COFCO president Yu Xubo.

Maverick Food, formerly known as Asia-Pacific Food Guangdong Co Ltd, was the first foreign-invested meat product enterprise to set up business in China. It was founded by America's Smithfield Foods Inc, the world's largest vertically-integrated pig breeding and pork product company, and ARTAL Corp, one of Europe's largest transnational food companies.

At the beginning of this year, COFCO announced a new operating strategy in which Maverick Food will play a key role. Maverick controls a 47% share of the refrigerated meat products market in Guangzhou and a 36% share of the refrigerated meat products market in Shenzhen, and has strong sales in Shanghai and Beijing as well.