Danish Crown fights off coronavirus to maintain Chinese production
In a statement, the pork processor said that the outbreak of coronavirus in China presents many challenges, as banks and ports in these times only run in short bursts to minimize the risk of the virus spreading.
Lars Albertsen, global sales director at Danish Crown, said: “Of course, we are strongly concerned that the outbreak of corona virus has put China in a state where companies are running only on low levels and this is slowing down our business. It puts pressure on logistics when, for example. ports and banks do not run at the normal level. Despite tough conditions, however, we maintain exports to China, but at a slightly lower level.”
The Chinese authorities chose to extend the Chinese New Year holiday period to 2 February, which led to Danish Crown's Pinghu factory being closed for an extra week.
Meanwhile, quarantine rules came into force so that people who had left the Pinghu area would not have to work for a period of 14 days, but now the factory in Pinghu is up and running again.
“The factory in Pinghu runs through everything it has the capacity for with the limited number of employees who are currently working and everything that comes through the factory has been sold. As the days go on, more employees arrive at the factory and capacity increases,” added Albertsen.
