Danish Crown has restarted its meat processing plant in China. The production location in Pinghu, near Shanghai, was extra quiet for a week due to the outbreak of the corona virus. The Danish meat group hopes to increase the export of pork to China again.
Danish Crown processes pork from Denmark into products for the Chinese market at its Pinghu factory. These are offered in the online shop of e-commerce giant Alibaba. The factory is brand new, because it opened in the autumn of 2019. However, the Danish meat group is now experiencing major disruption due to the impact of the coronavirus.
For example, due to the virus, the Chinese government has extended the holiday period around the Chinese New Year by one week, forcing the Danish Crown to also close its factory. The factory has now started up again with a limited number of employees. Danish Crown expects to be able to deploy more employees and increase capacity in the coming days.
Logistics under pressure
"We are deeply concerned about the coronavirus outbreak," Danish Crown sales director Lars Albertsen said in a statement. "The consequences also affect our company. It puts pressure on logistics, for example, because the ports and banks are not running at normal capacity. Despite the difficult circumstances, exports to China continue, albeit at a slightly lower level."
Danish Crown freezes the pork in Denmark and then transports it to China. In 2018, the meat company already exported 213.000 tons of pork to China, good for $340 million in turnover. That has only increased last year due to the influence of the African swine fever in China.
© DCA Market Intelligence. This market information is subject to copyright. It is not permitted to reproduce, distribute, disseminate or make the content available to third parties for compensation, in any form, without the express written permission of DCA Market Intelligence.
