June 21, 2007

Brazil's Perdigao to buy another beef plant for US$52.4 million

Brazil's meat processing giant Perdigao has agreed to purchase another beef slaughterhouse owned by Valore Participacoes e Empreendimentos Ltda for 100 million Brazilian reais (US$52.4 million/39 million euros).

The deal is reportedly part of Perdigao's plans to expand its beef processing operations by 2011. Perdigao started beef processing in 2005.

The slaughterhouse is located in the Mirassol D'Oeste municipality, some 300 kilometres from Cuiaba, the capital city of the central-western Mato Grosso state. The plant employs 500 and with a daily capacity slaughter of 500 animals. Perdigao plans to expand the plant's slaughter capacity to 2,000 animals a day in line with the international beef slaughter and food processing sanitary standards. The expansion is seen to be completed for 180 days.

The bulk of the unit's output will be earmarked for exports. Currently, the unit already exports beef to Russia, United Arab Emirates, Angola, Kuwait, Morocco, the Caribbean. It is also authorised for exports to the European Union (EU).