CHANGGE and BEIJING, China, Aug. 27 /PRNewswire-Asia-FirstCall/ --
Zhongpin Inc. ('Zhongpin', Nasdaq: HOGS), a leading meat and food processing
company in the People's Republic of China, today announced that it has
upgraded its slaughtering and processing facility in Changge, Henan province,
that produces chilled and frozen pork products.
Process engineering and information technology improvements have increased
the plant's annual production capacity by 37 percent, from 59,760 metric tons
to 81,760 metric tons, at a cost of approximately US$ 6 million. This higher
capacity will help support Zhongpin's expansion into new markets for its
chilled and frozen pork products.
With the upgrade of the Changge plant, the company has ended the lease of
a plant in Hengshui, Hebei province.
Going forward, this newly modernized plant in Changge and the new plant in
Tianjin that is currently under construction will assist Zhongpin to better
serve its important north China market including the affluent cities of
Beijing, Tianjin, and Tangshan.
The new Tianjin plant, which is expected to begin pork production by mid-
February 2010, also will have state-of-the-art processes to produce chilled
and frozen pork products of the highest quality and safety.
Mr. Xianfu Zhu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Zhongpin, said,
'We are very pleased with our new upgraded slaughtering and processing
facilities, which were completed on schedule. As a significant phase in our
capacity expansion plan, this partial rationalization of our production
network is another important milestone in our development and helps us
increase production and distribution efficiency. The newly modernized Changge
plant and the coming new Tianjin plant will benefit from the same modern
process engineering and information technology advances we have been applying
to all our facilities. We have only one production standard - to make the
highest quality pork products in the world.
'Zhongpin's market in north China includes consumers, distributors,
restaurants, and organizations that require outstanding quality, safety, taste,
and nutritional value from its products, plus on-time delivery -- just as all
of our customers do.
