Chinese-held Smithfield revenue up more the half a billion EUR in Romania
Chinese-held Smithfield group, the largest actor on the meat market in Romania, posted 2.5 billion lei (more than EUR550 million) revenue in 2017, an increase of 23% on the previous year, ZF has calculated from Finance Ministry data.
ZF took into account Smithfield Prod, Smithfield Romania, Elit and Vericom 2001 companies.
The growth came from the two main businesses of the Chinese group in Romania – Smithfield Prod and Smithfield Romania, and the two companies acquired from a Romanian entrepreneur.
The acquisition of Elit allows Smithfield to expand on a segment where it does not have a strong brand – cold cuts, an about EUR800 million market where the most powerful actors include Cris-Tim, Caroli and Aldis.
The largest company in the Smithfield group is Smithfield Prod, which ended last year with RON1.14 billion, up 27% on the previous year. The company owns the slaughterhouse in Timis County, which can process 600 heads per hour, its corporate website says. Smithfield Prod is an integrated producer of fresh and semi-processed pork under the Comtim brand. It stepped into the black last year, posting RON1.1 million net profit (EUR240,000), compared with a RON30 million loss the previous year.
Smithfield Romania group’s owner is China’s WH Group, the largest pork producer in the world.
www.zfenglish.com July 2018
