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- picture: Rainer Heck
“Belgian White-Blue” are the typical beef cattle in feeder farms.
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The Belgian market is characterized by beef on the one hand and pork on the other. As such, a total 502,500 beef cattle heifers were slaughtered in 2008, with more than half of these slaughterings accounted for by seven slaughterhouses. A similar picture can be seen in the pork production field, with two thirds of all pigs slaughtered in ten slaughterhouses. According to René Maillard (of the VLAM Belgian Meat Office), this clearly shows that Belgium, as such the fourth biggest meat exporting country in the European Union (EU), is still far apart from a significant concentration to just a few large plants in this particular field.
More than 320,000 t of pork were exported to Germany in 2008, and while pork leaves the country as cooled product, one quarter of exported beef is frozen. As for another point, Belgian slaughterhouses often have to contend with strong restrictions as a result of their location. To explain, a plant’s full capacity cannot be utilized in many places, because trucks must either pass apartment areas when heading for a motorway, or the plant itself is located in a mixed area. It follows that production or delivery is only permitted starting at 6 o’clock in the morning, while there must be a complete operation standstill in many places on Saturdays and Sundays. “This does require great flexibility”, explains Sophie Goossens (of Goossens NV). And this must furthermore be seen against the background that the minimum pay for cutup personnel in Belgium is currently 11 Euros per hour. But even so, qualified field personnel is urgently needed by Belgian companies.
In times of climate heating, the “CO2 footprint” is also becoming a relevant factor. Some LEH chain customers have already made this a part of their standing colors”, says Jaques de Brauwer (of the De-Brauwer Group), adding “for producers, demands has even come up to the point that 60 percent of production energy used must be green energy”. This also explains that many Belgian plants have meanwhile become certified under the most different aspects. As for one example, Goossens can look back to 80 years of family tradition coined by constant adaptation to the market. Certificates according to BRC, ISO 9001, GMP and membership in the Certus System readily underscore that type of commitment.
click on the picture (5 pictures) Apart from the pig slaughtering plant, the company also operates its own transportation branch to cope with purchasing and sales logistics. Deboning and carcass cutup are performed at two locations. While the establishment near Brussels is mostly engaged in supplying the homeland market, the second branch is there to handle exports, and add to that a deep-freeze establishment for exports to Asia. Fats coming up are resold to animal feed producers. Roughly one million pigs are slaughtered and cut up by Goossens annually, with 2008 gross sales amounting to 150 million Euros, of which 35 percent are accounted for by the Belgian market and 65 percent by exports. Here again, Germany plays a major role ahead of Italy and France. Investments made in the last years are therefore focused on customer needs and requirements in these countries.
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