The farms, located in the country’s eastern and central part, respectively, are two of the firm’s Romania-based facilities. In addition to Brăila and Sibiu, Premium Porc owns a further four pig farms, located in Vrancea, Constanţa and Olt.
Higher sales revenues
The latest announcement follows the release of the company’s improved results for 2015. Last year, Premium Porc managed to increase its sales revenues to some €53m, an increase of about 10% compared with a year earlier.
“Currently, the companies are carrying out a major project which consists of expanding the farm in Brăila municipality, and overhauling and expanding the farm in Sibiu municipality. The two investments in Sibiu and Brăila are estimated to total about €35m, and they are expected to take about two years to be completed,” Kim Ostergaard, country manager for the Romanian market at Premium Porc, told local business daily Ziarul Financiar.
New facilities to be built
Under the plan, the pig farm in Sibiu is set to host the group’s largest pig slaughtering facility. The farm was acquired in December 2015 and has facilities covering a total surface area of 30,000sq m, according to data from Premium Porc. The group said in a statement that three facilities were turned into slaughterhouses in February 2016 “with a relatively small investment”. The remaining buildings will be modernised and enabled with a slaughtering capacity of some 171,000 head per year.
The farm in Sibiu will be “fully renovated” by September 2017, and is expected to be launched in October 2017, according to Premium Porc. Once the farm is overhauled, its facilities will be fitted with a total floorspace of 55,000sq m, of which 28,000sq m will comprise overhauled existing facilities, and 27,000sq m will be newly-built, the group said.
Premium Porc said it was the second-largest player in the Romanian pig industry, preceded by Smithfield Romania, a subsidiary of China’s WH Group. The company’s six pig farms in Romania are enabled with a breeding capacity of about 380,000 head per year. Premium Porc’s latest acquisition, the pig farm in Negreni, about 170km west of Romania’s capital Bucharest, was purchased in August 2013.
Set up in 2006, the Danish-owned company is based in Vrancea, in the country’s eastern part. In addition to its pig breeding activities, the group also owns two feed mills in Vrancea and Sibioara. The facilities have the capacity to produce about 70,000 tonnes of feed each per year, according to data from Premium Porc. The Romanian company is a local offshoot of Denmark’s DCH International A/S.