Peking vs Barbary
In Europe, France, Hungary and Poland are the most important duck meat producing countries. While the rest of the world is breeding mainly Peking duck for meat, European plants will also process many Barbary ducks, also called Muscovy ducks, renowned for their plump, firm meat.
Unlike Peking ducks, that are processed at 6 weeks old, Barbary ducks are grown until 12 to 14 weeks. Males and females feature a considerable weight difference, varying from 2,5 kilos to 5 kilos. At this age, Barbary ducks are more difficult to process because of the feather adhesion and the further developed bone structure. “With our PMJ solutions, however, we succeed in processing a mixture of males and females with different weights and sizes on one single line,” says Bas van der Veldt.
Combined processing
“In Eastern European countries such as Hungary and Poland, you’ll find combined geese / duck processing lines. There too, our PMJ lines process a mixture of birds, from Peking duck of about 3 kilos live weight to geese of 9 kilos. It’s easy to adjust a number of basic parts of the eviscerator, such as the spoon and the leg spreader. These are quick change-over systems that will take about fifteen minutes of work to switch, allowing processors to make fully combined lines with a small conversion. When such lines process ducks one day and geese the next day, a changeover can happen during the cleaning time, which makes combined processing profitable in this way.”
“For somewhat smaller processors, we also have eviscerators and other machinery to handle game and other poultry. Such processors simply switch three times a day between small turkeys, geese, quails, pheasants, ducks and wild ducks. Such applications exist around the world, from Canada to Asia, with a relatively low processing speed.”
Bas van der Veldt concludes, “I’m convinced that with the knowledge and skills of our employees we have the flexibility and innovative power to serve the global duck market with highest-quality, sustainable processing systems and service.”