December 2, 2008

Zhongpin Inc., a leading meat and food processing company in China, announced that it has entered into an agreement with Chenguang Meat Products Factory to lease a pork production facility in Shenzhou city starting from early December of 2008.

The newly leased facility is located in the city of Shenzhou, Hebei Province, and has an annual chilled and frozen pork production capacity of approximately 26,000 tonnes. 

Zhongpin plans to use about 70 percent of the capacity for the production of chilled pork products and the remaining 30 percent for frozen pork products. 

Hebei Province has a well-developed transportation system, which will facilitate Zhongpin's expansion plans to penetrate markets in Northern China. 

The leased facility has the largest hog slaughtering capacity in Shenzhou and is equipped with equipment utilising advanced processing technology. The addition of this facility increases Zhongpin's total pork production capacity by 7 percent to 417,560 tonnes annually.

Zhongpin CEO Zhu Xianfu said a production base in Hebei will help the company to effectively tap and acquire more share of the high-end pork product markets in Tianjin, Beijing, and other areas in Northern China that have experienced rapid growth in their consumer base in recent year.

Zhongpin is a meat and food processing company that specialises in pork and pork products, and fruits and vegetables, in China. Its distribution network China spans 24 provinces and includes over 2,995 retail outlets. Zhongpin's export markets include the EU, Eastern Europe, Russia, Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea.