Tyson Foods Inc., Springdale, Ark., said it agreed to purchase a 60 percent interest in China'sShandong Xinchang Group, a leading vertically integrated poultry producer with estimated 2009 sales of US $345 million. Terms were not disclosed.
The deal includes Xinchang's existing assets and a new poultry processing complex on the east coast of Shandong Province. Xinchang's business includes chicken and duck breeder and broiler farms, feed mills and hatcheries. With the addition of the new chicken processing complex, the Shandong Tyson Xinchang Foods Co. Ltd. business also will include four chicken processing facilities and one duck processing plant. Most of Xinchang's chicken and duck products are sold frozen through foodservice and wholesale channels.
Officials said this will be Tyson's third joint venture poultry operation in China. The company also has a majority interest in a chicken further processing facility in Zhucheng, Shandong; and a vertically integrated poultry operation under development in Haimen City near Shanghai.