Chicken meat producer Avicola Buzau, which, together with three other facilities, is part of Aaylex, a Bucharest-based group, the third leading player on the market, expects its retail sales to rise by 25% this year based mainly on the expansion of the major retail chains.
"The growth will come from the fact that we are producing more than last year for our major accounts - the KFC chain, for whom we are the sole supplier of chicken, and the retail chains with which we are on very good terms. In other words, some space has become available on the market as a result of the disappearance or drastic decline in production by some players," said Bogdan Stanca, chairman of Avicola Buzau and an Aaylex shareholder.
Two of the leading players on the chicken market, Tec Miaco and Avicola Iasi, have significantly reduced their output, while most imports, which are looked upon as unfair competition by local players due to their extremely low prices, have fallen strongly.
Stanca said that there was a clear trend on the market in favour of white meat, such as chicken or even fish, over red meat like pork. "There''s a clear trend towards the consumption of chicken, which is the result of changing mentalities. On the one hand, there''s also a strange trend prominent on the market: Romanians have started buying refrigerated meat (fresh meat with a shelf life of only a few days) to the detriment of frozen meat. It''s a good thing that Romanians are opting for fresh meat, of course, but unfortunately many are buying and then going home and freezing it."
Aaylex, which also owns Avis Lipia, Aviprod Zoresti and two farms in Galati, sells more than 85% refrigerated meat.
According to Stanca, the problems encountered by the chicken industry in Thailand, the world''s second leading producer, have greatly benefited sales by domestic producers in that Romanians have avoided buying imported meat, but also Romanian chicken exports, which were seen differently and managed to fetch even higher prices.
"The refrigerated meat market is going up, but a player wanting to enter the frozen foods market will have a very hard time doing so, due to unfair competition from very cheap imports," he added. stelian.negrea@zf.ro
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