Romania�s thriving meat market lures Reinert

This move comes as pork consumption in Romania continues to grow 10 per cent year on year, according to Romania's councillor for agriculture, Achim Irimescu. In January he told CEE-foodindustry.com: �Last year Romania imported 50 per cent of the national consumption of pork.�

�Although there are seven million pigs in the country only one million are bred for commercial companies,� he added.

Irimescu also said that as the Romanian economy continues to grow steadily he believes the demand for pork will continue to grow, because as wages increase meat consumption does the same.

This is the first time the meat processor has taken production outside Germany and it hopes to start production of meat and charcuterie products in Romania as soon as this autumn but at the latest by the end of the summer 2007, with plans to supply nearby countries such as Moldova, Hungary and Bulgaria.

The Reinhurt factory, currently under construction in Feldioara north of Brasov in central Romania, will produce only national and regional specialities from Romania and other countries in southeast Europe.

The company, which achieved an annual turnover in 2004 of �300m (RON1bn), has invested �15m on the state-of-the-art development that will work to attain recognised German production standards. And it will initially have an annual capacity of 12,500 tonnes, producing around 20 tonnes of sausage, salami and ham a day.

The German company, which currently exports more than 30 per cent of its production from its five locations in Germany, is to sell the produce in supermarkets and small retail outlets throughout Romania.

This is the second foreign meat processor to invest in the Romanian meat market in the past month, after the world's largest hog producer and pork processor, Smithfield Foods of America, revealed last month that it planned to invest �703m in developing its activities there over the next five years.

In March 2004, Smithfield entered the Romanian market after buying the Comtim group and acquiring a majority stake in meat processing company Agrotovis.

The American company paid �28m for Comtim and invested �170m in developing Agrotovis.