“The company hired about 20 people [at the new plant]. Currently, the new production facilities are being fitted with equipment, and the company’s owner plans to introduce the processing of mutton and lamb meat, and Italian-style prosciutto ham [at the facility],” the special economic zone said in a statement.
The meat business invested close to PLN8 million (€1.9m) in its new plant, which is located in the Opole subzone. Construction work on the project took two years, and it was officially launched in early July, according to the statement. To implement its investment, the company purchased a land plot of some 3,800sq m within the zone.
New products to be launched
The meat business specialises in processing game meat, and also offers a range of processed pork meat products. These include hams, sausages, frankfurters, pâté, and Polish traditional blood sausage kaszanka. In the near future, Zagroda Opolska is planning to add new processed meat products to its portfolio.
The company previously operated a meat processing plant in Gościejowice, but decided to relocate its activities to the Opole subzone. Locating similar investments in one of the country’s special economic zones allows both domestic and foreign investors to obtain preferential tax treatment and acquire state support for their projects. In return, investors are required to declare the minimum amount of jobs they aim to create at their designed plants, and maintain them for a determined number of years.
Retail outlets to be opened
The facility was fitted with a floorspace of some 1,200sq m, which comprises production facilities, as well as two outlets that are to sell Zagroda Opolska’s products to local customers.
“In the near future, a retail store and a small canteen … will also be launched at the plant,” the statement said.
Zagroda Opolska hopes to benefit from the rising popularity of game meat in the Polish market, which has been traditionally considered as a high-quality but also expensive product. Data released in a 2016 study by researchers from the Warsaw University of Life Sciences (WULS) indicated that an average Pole consumes less than 0.1kg of game meat per year. In comparison, pork meat continues to be the country’s most popular type of meat, with an average annual consumption of about 40.5kg per capita, followed by poultry meat, with a consumption of 30.5kg per capita, according to figures from the Warsaw-based Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics (IERiGZ).
Zagroda Opolska has been active in the pork meat processing sectors for about 28 years. The company expanded to the game meat processing sector about 13 years ago, according to data from the company’s website.