30m-euro investments for Smithfield thus far

American food industry giant Smithfield Foods, Inc. has so far invested 30 million euros to retool the meat processing plant in Timisoara. “By the end of the year, the first sections of this plant will become operational. As part of the same project, the company will also build a waste water treatment facility and a waste disposal facility,” said Mircea – Ioan Cotosman, the corporate affairs director of Smithfield Romania. The processing plant in Timisoara covers 75,000 square metres. “By 2011, we will have 1,800 employees. The plant will process 16,000 pigs a day, i.e. 4 million pigs a year,” Cotosman added. Along with projects aimed at modernising the plant, the American group conducts investment programmes targeting farms, beginning with the modernisation of the old farms that used to belong to Comtim. “Our farm division currently has 989 employees. By 2011, we estimate the number of our employees will reach 1,700,” Cotosman added.