“We plan to start the investment in 2020 and it will be completed in several phases around 2031-32. The plant will be built in Szeged’s periphery as a greenfield investment on a 100-hectare plot,” László Sutka, the acting CEO of Pick Szeged, told Global Meat News.
Investment in production capacities
Under the plan, the project is to allow the meat processor to raise its salami production capacity by about 30%, according to the chief executive. The value of the investment was not disclosed.
Pick Szeged operates three meat processing facilities in the Hungarian market, located in Szeged, Alsómocsolád, and Baja. The plants are enabled to make some 40,000 tonnes (t) of processed meat products per year, including about 11,000 t of moulded salami.
Pick Szeged is a subsidiary of Hungary’s Bonafarm Group. The meat processor specialises in processed pork products, and sells its output under the brands of Pick, Herz, Família, and Ringa. Some of the company’s products include salamis, dry sausages, frankfurters, hams, bacon, cold cuts, and others. It exports its products to some 36 foreign markets worldwide.
Exports to rise
The Hungarian market is responsible for the majority of Pick Szeged’s revenues, but export sales play an increasingly important role, according to data from the company. Currently, more than 25% of Pick Szeged’s sales are generated by foreign sales, Sutka said.
“The most important export market of the company is Germany, but we export a significant amount to the neighboring countries and Scandinavia as well. We would like to strengthen our market activity in North America, West Europe, and also in the Far East,” the chief executive said.
Within the European Union, some of the firm’s main export markets include the UK, Italy, France, Spain, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Greece, Cyprus, Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, Estonia, and Latvia. Outside the EU, Pick Szeged supplies its products to the US, Canada, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Ukraine, Serbia, Turkey, and Georgia, among others, according to data released by the business.
The latest development comes shortly following the company’s celebration of the 150th anniversary of its founding. The participants of the official ceremony, which took place last month in Szeged, included Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
“We Hungarians have excellent agricultural land, we understand animal husbandry … [but] for these talents to also be embodied in finished products, there is a need for Hungarian companies which possess the culture that is essential in the food industry. And Bonafarm is just such a company, providing a solid background for two Hungarikum products: Pick and Herz salami,” Orbán said, as quoted in a statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office.