India-based investment firm, IBS Synergies, has plans to invest US$150 million in Romania’s poultry sector. The greenfield project in question will include a new hatchery, a slaughterhouse, and a poultry meat processing plant with a capacity to process 30 million head per year, to be located in an undisclosed location within the country as reported by Global Meat News.

 

Earlier in November, IBS chief executive, AS Bindra met with Romania’s State Secretary for Foreign Investment and Public-Private Partnerships, according to a statement by the state-run Department for Infrastructure Projects and Foreign Investment (DPIIS). Through the meeting, it became apparent that it is likely that the investment by IBS will take on a public-private partnership structure through which it will be awarded state funds, however the exact amount of state funds was not disclosed.

 

Founded in 2010 as part of the IBS Group in Chandigarh, India, IBS Synergies is involved in multiple global agricultural projects in addition to the planned project in Romania, including a poultry and feed project in Mozambique, a poultry project in Abu Dhabi with production capacity to match the Romanian project at 30 million head per year, and beef production projects in Ethiopia and Sudan, as well as interests in commodity trading in corn, wheat, and rice.

 

Romania’s meat market is currently worth approximately €3.2 billion, of which it is estimated that €1.5 billion in sales is sourced from black market channels. In order to reduce tax evasion within the country’s meat industry, Romania’s government reduced the value-added tax (VAT) on meat and processed meat products from 24% to 9% in August 2014. Since the reduction, local industry observers have noted an upswing in investment in the country’s meat sector.