Romanian pig farm with 11 million lei
Farmer Grigore Iuga is building a pig farm with 11 million lei, in the town of Urziceni, Satu Mare county. "The farm will be ready in May, with a capacity of 750-1,200 head.“
The entrepreneur Grigore Iuga, owner of Csaba & Csaba Company in Urziceni, Satu Mare county, is building a new breeding pig farm with over 11 million lei, out of which 50% are European funds.
”We have a pig fattening plant with a capacity of 5,000 head. The price of a 25 kg piglet is currently 470 lei, and that of a 110 kg pig destined to slaughter is 700 lei. The price of piglets has increased a lot due to the swine fever, but it hasn't increased on the fattening side, so in this context we are investing in our own breeding farm”, says Grigore Iuga, owner of Csaba & Csaba Company.
He says that the processors are now buying pigameat from producers for about 7 lei/kg, although in December the price was over 8 lei/kg; however, between December and February there was no drop in the price for the consumers.
The breeding farm will be ready in May, and it will have a capacity of 750 -1.200 head, says the farmer. The breeding sows will be bought from Germany, and the breed expected to be used is Duroc, it being a productive breed, with good meat.
After the fattening phase, the pigs will be shipped to internal processors, since the farmer has no slaughtering facility. Such an investment would involve more workforce, which is a delicate topic for the Romanian entrepreneurs. “We are not faced with the lack of work force, because people stay when you pay them decent wages. But there is a problem.”
The entrepreneur says he has undertaken strict measures to protect the animals, so that, despite African swine fever reaching one kilometer away from his farm, the virus has not affected his farm.
He argues that the plague will not be eradicated in the following five years, but hopes that the number of outbreaks in Romania will decrease.
Grigore Iuga is also involved in the Rocada Beta businesses (50%), trading in fuels, ores, metals and chemicals, and businesses amounting to 2.5 million lei in 2018, as well as in Agro Sincron GSM (33%), with swine farming activities, according to Confidas, a platform that analyzes the financial risk of companies.
According to the same source, the five largest pig farmers in Satu Mare county, based on the turnover in 2018, are Abo Mix, Veres Agro Prod Com, Bovagro Land, Samsuin Land and Zootehnia Cig.
The Chinese group Smithfield is the largest player on the pigmeat market in Romania, with businesses amounting to 868 million lei in 2018, the latest data from the Ministry of Finance indicate.
Source: Article published in the print edition of Ziarul Financiar
