Japan's Sumitomo To Import Pork From Poland

TOKYO (Nikkei)--Sumitomo Corp. (8053.TO) has teamed up with major U.S. meat company Smithfield Foods Inc. to commence its first imports of Polish pork as it seeks to expand overseas sources of meat and processed foods, The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported in its Friday morning edition.

Each year, the general trading company will purchase from Smithfield's Polish subsidiary around 10,000 tons of frozen meat for use by restaurants and processed food companies. The Ministry of Agriculture had until February banned imports of pork from Poland because foot and mouth disease was considered epidemic there.

Sumitomo plans to buy U.S. ham, sausage and bacon from Smithfield starting sometime next year, and may also procure ham from Spain.

Following the suspension of poultry imports from Thailand and China due to bird flu, Sumitomo has been buying 2,000 to 3,000 tons of chicken each year from a Smithfield facility in Poland.

Since the 1980s, Sumitomo has held a roughly 1% stake in Smithfield, the world's largest pork processor, and imports 20,000 tons of U.S. pork annually.
Source: cattlenetwork.com