A market shift prompts CP LongYan’s expansion

In 2019, China’s pork consumption dropped by 15%, driven by food safety concerns, which were mainly ASF related. Outlets serving consumers as well as catering for schools, factories and large companies have shifted to other animal proteins such as poultry. Chicken breast meat, used a lot in meat processing and food service, has seen large price increases.

Dramatic upgrade

Following the dramatic market shift, CP Food was looking for ways to expand its LongYan Chia Tai poultry processing plant. The aim was to increase processing capacity while improving production efficiency, reduce dependence on manual labor and drive down production costs per kilo of poultry meat. This meant a considerable increase in automation and a higher level of product quality. LongYan chose Marel as its exclusive partner for replacing existing machinery and manual labor with the necessary automation upgrades. “To achieve LongYan’s upgrade to 13,500 bph, we replaced a lot of existing equipment, particularly in the evisceration, distribution, cut-up and filleting departments,” says Kai Zhao, Industry Sales Manager Marel Poultry. “Now, the processing line meets all requirements regarding automation levels, production efficiency and product quality.”

Speed and tension

An important upgrade involved the Sigma overhead conveyor line running through the entire factory. It has a total length of about 500 meters and is controlled by ATC automatic tension control, Marel’s unique way to check chain performance. For data acquisition and the logistic control of all processes taking place in the overhead conveyor, Marel supplied its Innova PDS software.

Traditional Chinese recipes

LongYan Chia Tai’s factory overhaul also included the entire evisceration department. Once Marel’s VC-20 Vent Cutter and the VO-20 Opening Machine have done their work, Nuova 24 carries out the delicate job of evisceration. Common in China is the high attention paid to giblet harvesting. Giblets have a high value on the market, as they’re often used in traditional Chinese recipes. To ensure the highest yields and top quality, CP LongYan is joining the trend towards automatic giblet harvesting. Many of Marel’s dedicated systems are at work carefully harvesting gizzards, livers and hearts.

From weighing to cut-up

After leaving the chilling department, products enter the upgraded distribution line. A SmartWeigher weighs the products and, depending on the data gathered, whole grillers are released at one of the three new unloading stations. Products remaining are distributed via the TR-1G transfer unit to the cut-up department. CP Longyan Chia Tai runs two ACM-NT cut-up systems, each capable of handling 6,500 products per hour. These two lines have been identically configured and feature almost all available wing, breast and leg modules. LongYan upgraded its breast filleting process to no fewer than four complete AMF-i systems.

Products in demand

“For every important stage in the production process, CP LongYan’s management put their trust in Marel and replaced their existing equipment with our advanced, automated solutions,” says Kai Zhao. “It was a pleasure to work with CP LongYan. Together we created the perfect conditions for their processing plant for producing top quality poultry products, which are in great demand on the Chinese market.”

About CP LongYan Chia Tai

CP LongYan is a part of CP Fujian, in its turn part of the multinational CP Group headquartered in Bangkok, Thailand. Longyan is a "small" city according to Chinese standards with approximately 2.5 million inhabitants in Southeastern China. The CP Group is involved in agriculture and animal husbandry, food, retail, telecommunications and other fields, and operates in more than 20 countries. In 1979, the CP Group was one of the first foreign companies to enter China. Now, after more than 30 years of development, it has set up more than 200 enterprises, with more than 80,000 employees and annual sales of more than 50 billion yuan. The CP Group is one of South-East Asia's largest and most influential business groups.