Romanian meat firms eye €25m to expand output capacity

Agricover, one of Romania’s leading food producers, expanded into the country’s meat industry through the acquisition of a slaughterhouse in Niculesti, in southern Romania. The investment, under which Agricover modernised the facility’s capacity, upgraded its production lines with new technology and overhauled the facility’s logistics capability, is worth €5m. 

Meanwhile, senior company representatives said the company was mulling further projects in the Romanian meat industry. 

“We are not excluding the possibility of additional investments if this brings added value to our company’s partners,”​ Ştefan Bucătaru, a senior manager at Agricover, told local business daily Ziarul Financiar. 

Agricover said the group was operated by more than 650 employees, and was active in the production and distribution of cereals, seeds and crop protection products, among other sectors.

Pig farm​

The second investor, Degaro, aims to allocate €20m to expanding its two locations, a sow breeding farm and a finisher pig farm, and constructing a new feed mill in Romania’s Constanta county. The project is enabled by a loan obtained from UniCredit Bank and UniCredit Tiriac Bank. 

The two Romanian facilities are located in Fantanele and Sibioara, both in the Constanta county. 

Degaro is part of Premium Porc, a group of companies established in 2006 and specialised in pig breeding and pork meat production. With a capacity of 245,000 pigs per year, Premium Porc claimed it was one of the largest swine breeders in the Romanian market. The group also grows crops, processes grains at its own feed mills, and produces feed which is used by its pig farms, according to data released by Premium Porc. The group is owned by Denmark’s DCH International A/S.

Expansion project​

The current expansion project aims to achieve three goals, according to DCH. In its first phase, the Fantanele farm saw its capacity increased from 3,000 to some 6,200 sows. The second part of the project is to increase the capacity of the Sibioara farm from 64,000 to 102,000 finishers per year. In addition, the construction of the new feed mill and silos will provide the farm in Sibioara with a storage capacity of 30,900 tonnes, Premium Porc said. 

Degaro is one of the group’s six companies, and its pig farms are located about 210 km east of the country’s capital city Bucharest.