Karpaten Meat says it has been producing “high-quality beef with Angus cattle, bred on natural pastures in Transylvania” with the aim of commercialising it in the Romanian and Western European markets.
The company is owned by a group of Swiss-German investors. In addition to its sales to Romanian meat processors and the local branch of French retailer Carrefour, Karpaten Meat exports fresh Angus beef meat to various meat industry players, primarily located in Germany and Switzerland.
However, it is noteworthy that, over the past years, its share of domestic sales has been increasing, according to senior company representatives.
Domestic sales on the rise
“In 2015, the proportion of domestic and export sales was 80% for exports and 20% for the domestic sales. Last year showed a significant expansion in the Romanian market, with 60% of our total sales intended for exports, and 40% sold to retailers, restaurants and meat processors in Romania,” Samuel Widmer, co-owner and general manager of Karpaten Meat, told business daily Ziarul Financiar.
To date, Karpaten Meat has invested some €20 million in the Romanian market, and the company is currently implementing further investments.
The company operates three farms in Transylvania’s Agrinoc, Nocrich and Marpod municipalities. The latter two are former dairy farms. The Nocrich-based farm was subsequently upgraded, while the farm in Marpod “is currently in the process of expansion and modernisation, and [it] will house cattle for fattening and trade”, according to data from the firm.
Karpaten Meat, based in Marpod, was set up in 2008 through the import of the first 120 pregnant Angus heifers from Germany. The following year, the company imported a further 200 Angus cattle from the German market and, by 2013, its total herd stock stood at more than 2,500 Angus cattle, according to data from the company.
Karpaten Meat said its aim was “to set the foundations for sustainable ANGUS-quality beef production in Romania”. Its activities cover “all stages of production: it starts with organic pasture, ranges to breeding and fattening of Angus cattle up to the processing of the meat”. The Romanian firm is jointly owned by Widmer and his Swiss business partner Stefan Jung, who also serves as the company’s executive manager. Karpaten Meat said its two co-owners had “many years of professional experience in agriculture, meat production and the meat trade”.
Pork meat dominates the Romanian meat market, as Romanians consume annually about 29kg of pork meat per capita, 20.1kg of poultry meat, and only about 5.6kg and 2.3kg of beef and sheep/goat meat, respectively, according to figures from the country’s National Institute of Statistics (INSSE).