UK-listed Ukraine-based poultry and grain processor MHP has opened a processing facility in Slovakia as part of plans to boost exports to European Union markets.
The company said the new plant has been set up in “close cooperation with one of its EU distributors in Slovakia”. MHP declined to reveal investment costs or the name of the partner.
However, the company, which has another EU processing plant in the Netherlands, said total capital expenditures for the processing services of chicken products in Slovakia are soon expected to reach around US$3m.
An MHP spokesperson told just-food the facility would support plans to grow its business in the EU – which represents around 6% of the firm’s total exports – in line with the export strategy the firm outlined last year.
The spokesperson said MHP “sees EU markets as the main area of growth” for supplies of chicken meat. “We are also looking at the possibility of expanding into supplying the catering market.”
Earlier this month, MHP announced it had swung back into profit in 2016 and reported growth in annual revenues. The company posted a net profit of $69m, compared to a net loss of $113m in 2015, a year when it ran up foreign-exchange losses of $390m.
