Source: Rita Jane Gabbett, MEATINGPLACE, 12/29/15


WH Group, the world’s largest pork company and the parent company of Smithfield Foods, announced it has opened a new “American-style packaged meat factory” in China located at Zhengzhou Shuanghui Industrial Park, Henan.  

WH Group’s subsidiary, Henan Shuanghui Investment & Development Co., Ltd., built the plant, investing RMB800 million (about $123 million) and introducing up to 176 sets of automated meat processing equipment from countries including the United States, Germany, France and Switzerland.

Under a registered license for using the Smithfield’s brand and trademark, all the product raw materials of the factory are imported from Smithfield Foods and the production technology and processes are monitored by a number of technology consultants from the United States.

According to a news release, the plant, “strictly adheres to the construction regulations for Chinese food enterprises, makes reference to the U.S. Department of Agriculture food safety standards in terms of design and implementation. In addition, it uses authentic U.S. raw materials and technologies to achieve the highest food safety and quality standards.” 

The factory mainly produces three major categories of products — American-style bacon, American-style ham and American-style sausages — and has a daily production capacity of 100 metric tons. 

“This project sets a milestone of synergy between our Chinese and U.S. corporations since WH Group’s acquisition of Smithfield Foods,” said Chairman of the Board of WH Group and CEO of Shuanghui Development Wan Long in a news release.

“Although Smithfield Foods and China’s Shuanghui have different cultural backgrounds, they share the same goal — to provide quality, healthy and safe meat products to consumers. We believe that the success of this project will boost the structural adjustment and transformation of China’s meat industry, leading to a new meat consumption trend in China.”

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