Food Industry
Best production conditions for food
Saxony-Anhalt is an ideal location for the food industry. The most important reason is the good supply of raw materials such as grains, sugar and meat. Halberstädter sausages, Burger crispbread, Salzwedeler cakes, Halloren Kugeln chocolates, Zörbiger jams, Rotkäppchen sparkling wine, Saale-Unstrut wine and Hasseröder beer are regulars on supermarket shelves at home and abroad.
Hard facts of the Food Industry in Saxony-Anhalt
- Almost 21,700 employees in around 190 plants generate annual sales of around 7.5 billion euros (2008)
- Labour productivity is 12% above the national average
- Around 1.2 million hectares used for agriculture, of which around 85% is arable land (the highest proportion in Germany)
- Grain cultivation on more than half of the arable land, especially wheat and barley
- Efficient agricultural businesses, high yields thanks to the most fertile soils in Germany: many areas have the maximum soil value of 100
Advantages of the Food Industry in Saxony-Anhalt
Ideal supply of raw materials for processors
Magdeburg Börde - Germany's grain store
- Magdeburger Mühlenwerke: 225,000 tonnes milled per year (wheat and rye)
- Saalemühle: processing capacity for wheat of 250,000 tonnes per year
- NEW in Saalemühle: processing capacity for durum wheat of 40,000 tonnes per year
Main cultivation areas for sugar beet
- Nordzucker AG, Kleinwanzleben: beet processing capacity per day: 15,000 tonnes
- Südzucker AG, Zeitz: beet processing capacity per day: 12,400 tonnes
- Pfeifer & Langen KG, Könnern: beet processing capacity per day: 16,500 tonnes
284,300 tonnes of meat (not including poultry) in 2008
- Number of pigs slaughtered per year: 3.1 million (2008)
- TönniesFleisch, Weißenfels is one of the largest slaughterhouses in Europe
- Wiesenhof-Geflügelschlachterei in Möckern: over 60 million chicks per year
Range of ingredients and additives
Starch
- Cargill, largest wheat starch factory in Europe at Barby, near Magdeburg, quantity processed per year: around 500,000 megatonnes of wheat
- FRP Food Retail and Productions GmbH, Zeitz, quantity processed per year: approx. 130,000 tonnes of wheat (start of operations expected 28.10.2009)
Food-grade potassium chloride
- Kaliwerk Zielitz, start of operations: September 2009
