Japanese growth to create 100 jobs at Danish Crown
To capitalise on the growing demand from Japanese consumers and restaurants for Danish pork, Danish Crown is establishing a new production line at the abattoir in Blans near Sønderborg, which will increase the number of employees by almost 10% from 1,100 to 1,200.
Søren F Eriksen, CEO of Danish Crown Pork, said: “It's great to be in a situation where we're taking on new people, especially when we’re talking about permanent jobs that are not affected by fluctuations in the supply of pigs. Our Japanese customers are crazy about a specific product based on minced pork, which we have sold to them for a few years. This means that we now need to hire more people to both debone fore-ends and run the actual production.”
He said that, with the EU and Japan having just signed a free trade agreement, which will be implemented continuously over the next 10 years, the very complex customs system applied by Japan today will gradually simplify.
Danish Crown’s exports to Japan amounted to more than DKK3bn last year, which accounted for around 30% of Denmark’s total exports to the world’s third-largest economy. The business also expects that increasing exports to Japan will lead to even more jobs in the coming years.
“Our Japanese customers are very interested in developing our trade,” added Eriksen. “Today, the Japanese almost exclusively buy fresh meat, which they process and pack themselves. Several of our customers wish to change this and want us to handle as much of the processing as possible. If this becomes the case, we'll need even more people.”
