Dear readers,
It’s holiday time, not to much is happening in our industry, we still deliver some good news:
- Clemens Food Group is investing about $130 million in a renovation and expansion project to boost bacon and sausage production at its main pork facility in Hatfield, Pennsylvania. Renovations to the existing 5500-square-meter facility began in February, with the expansion phase launching late this year. Completion of that work is targeted for the first half of 2027 with the plant reaching more than 9300 square meter.
- Family-owned Texas processor Standard Meat Co. said Wednesday it will mark the company’s 90th anniversary with the opening of its fifth plant in Fort Worth, Texas, a 15.000-square-meter facility near the iconic Fort Worth Stockyards.
Events calendar:
- FHI Food & Hotel Indonesia is one of the most prominent and internationally recognized trade fairs for the gastronomy, hospitality, and food industries in Southeast Asia. FHI Food & Hotel Indonesia invites visitors on 4 days from Tuesday, 22.07.2025 to Friday, 25.07.2025 in Jakarta.
- The “Thailand Retail, Food & Hospitality Services” (TRAFS) serves as an international trade fair and a central meeting point for experts in the food industry and specialists in the fields of gastronomy equipment and supplies. TRAFS expects quests on 4 days from Thursday, 24.07.2025 to Sunday, 27.07.2025 in Bangkok.
From Ebro to the Danube
The swine industry is having a difficult time. After the last two years, expectations of the farmers were high, but the current price levels and profits are far from the predicted ones.
While the business is composed of several player groups, we rarely have the opportunity to discuss with the final buyer of the goods. We are told several times that consumers ask for lower prices and this is not something we do not understand. In the same time, when we go shopping, the shelf price of the pork is not changing to much, so we wonder where is the decrease that we had to accept…
One of the results of the pressure for higher welfare standards and lower prices: according to a survey by the German Pig Farmers’ Association (ISN),
more than 20 percent of German sow farmers intend to retire within ten years. Among finisher pig farmers, 16 percent say they will retire, while 19 percent are still unsure.
Due to my former experience in the meat industry, I try to participate in the main European meat industry fairs, especially the ones attended by the East-European markets.
We can do things similar to everyone else and learn from their experience and advise, while there is also the option to try to adopt a different path.
The most famous way for doing this in Europe is, maybe, the “iberico “ integration in Spain, followed recently by the Duroc branding. You also may be familiar with the “pata nera di Sicilia” in Italy. In our region the most famous is the “mangalica” breed, popular in Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Croatia.
This year, in Athens, I met an interesting player from the Bulgarian market, who also took the risk to go on a different way. Vihren Dimitrov inherited the passion for pigs from his mother and developed a completely integrated business based on an own breed of pigs, using a local variety of wild pigs.
I visited his operations a few days ago and I am really impressed about the effort and hard work. He accepted my invitation to the annual event of our cooperative, to share his experience. We can still find new ways in the pig industry, from the Ebro to the Danube.
