DAT-Schaub, a subsidiary of food processing giant Danish Crown, has acquired a majority stake in Shanghai Natural Casing (SNC).

The deal is part of DAT-Schaub’s plans to increase additional capacity in the selecing and processing of natural casings from pigs and lambs for sausage and salami production.

Since 2007, SNC has been operating a processing facility near Shanghai to selec and process natural casings for US-based company DCW Casing.

DAT-Schaub CEO Jan Roelsgaard said: “China is the centre for selecting and processing in a labour-intensive industry like ours.

“At the same time, the country is well positioned geographically because the raw materials come from Europe, the US and Australia. There is a strong infrastructure to and from the Shanghai area, and the employees are meticulous and quality conscious, which is essential in our business.”

"There is a strong infrastructure to and from the Shanghai area, and the employees are meticulous and quality conscious, which is essential in our business."

“It’s a well-managed company, but it’s still possible to enlarge the capacity, which is essential for handling the rising volumes of raw materials we’ve gained access to over the past year.”

Headquartered in Denmark, DAT-Schaub buys sets of pig and sheep casings, cleans and salts them at the abattoirs to distribute to China or Portugal, wher it processes the casings at its manufacturing plants.

The company is involved in sourcing, producing, warehousing, marketing and distributing sausage casings and ingredients across the globe.

The food processing company also acquired majority stakes in five companies in South America and Spain in 2017 and established a joint venture in Spain, which has increased activity levels.