Poultry company Gallicoop will build a 1.2MW solar power plant through investment of HUF 582m in Szarvas (SE Hungary), CEO Istvan Erdelyi said.

The event was attended by Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto.

The government has supported the investment with a HUF 282m grant. The company committed to retain 1,060 jobs.

Gallicoop will save HUF 30m-40m in energy costs per year as a result.

The investment will also include purchasing equipment that will help the company increase production capacity of breaded turkey products to 10,000 tonnes a year, CEO Istvan Erdelyi said.

The company’s exports have declined dramatically due to the coronavirus pandemic, Mr Erdelyi said. He expressed hope that their earlier markets will recover from the second half of July.

In addition to domestic sales, Gallicoop exports its products to almost all European countries as well as Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong. Revenue from exports amount to HUF 13bn.

Gallicoop had revenue of HUF 35.9bn in 2019, the CEO said.