Romanian meat processors eye higher sales and exports
Marcel specialises in pork, poultry and beef meat processing, and a significant share of its output is intended for export sales to a number of EU markets, including the UK, Italy, Spain, Cyprus, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. This year, the firm aims to raise its revenues to about €20m, up 18% compared with a year earlier, according to information obtained by local business daily Ziarul Financiar.
“We are one of Romania’s leading meat exporters,” said Edward Iacob, the company’s operational director. “Every week, we deliver 40% of our output to foreign markets.”
The firm is headquartered in the Iasi county, in the country’s north-eastern region. It operates a pig farm and two meat processing facilities in Rachiteni and Roman. Marcel said its two plants were fitted with an output capacity of 40 tonnes (t) and 20t of processed meat per day, respectively. The two production facilities are operated by an aggregate workforce of more than 300 employees, according to data released by the firm. In addition to this, Marcel owns a network of 18 retail stores in the Romanian market.
Based in Romania’s eastern Vaslui county, local poultry meat processor Morandi said that, owing to the higher sales reported by the firm to date this year, it aims to increase its workforce. However, Morandi has experienced difficulties with recruiting potential employees due to the fact that many young Romanians have left the country to work in Western Europe, according to company representatives.
“We have more than 130 employees,” said Alina Moraru, the firm’s marketing director. “Young and experienced workers have migrated to work in other countries [in Western Europe]. And many of those who decided to stay in Romania prefer to collect social benefits provided by the state rather than look for work.”
This year, Morandi said it was eyeing total revenues of RON66m (€15m), a robust increase of around 38% compared with a year earlier.
Morandi owns four poultry farms with a capacity of some 660,000 head. In addition to its network of 10 retail stores, the Romanian company supplies its output to a number of major retail chains. These include Carrefour, Mega, Profi and Billa, with its products available at more than 1,000 stores.
Two of Morandi’s farms are located in Lipovat, and the remaining two are in Balteni and Stefan cel Mare. They have a capacity of 400,000, 30,000, 200,000 and 30,000 head, respectively, according to figures from the firm.
